SYRACUSE — The spring semester at Syracuse University won’t begin until Feb. 8, following a two-week delay over concerns about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

The semester will continue through May 21, the school announced Jan. 4. The move-in period for campus residence halls is set for the week of Feb. 1.

The university made its decision in consultation with the Onondaga County Health Department.

“Over the holiday break, we have been closely monitoring developments with COVID-19. It has become increasingly clear that the next several weeks will likely be among the most difficult our country and Central New York will experience since the onset of the pandemic,” Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud wrote in his update to students, families, faculty, and staff. 

Starting the semester two weeks later “best positions” Syracuse to resume residential instruction “in a manner that safeguards” the health and safety of students, faculty, staff, and the Central New York community, per the Chancellor’s message. 

First, it provides some distance between the expected post-holiday surge of cases and the return to campus, Syverud wrote. Secondly, it “increases the possibility” that some of the university’s frontline workers will be vaccinated prior to the start of the semester. 

“This includes our health-care staff in the Barnes Center, who administer medical care to our students,” said Syverud. The delayed start also “gets us closer” to the time when vaccines will be more widely available across the country, he added. 

Syracuse University in the coming days and weeks will announce further information on move-in logistics, testing and quarantine requirements, and other details as students prepare to return to campus. 

Mask wearing, social distancing, reduced capacity, and other public-health precautions “will continue to be in place” when the semester begins next month.   

OSWEGO — The Oswego Health Foundation, the fundraising arm of Oswego Health, recently announced four new board members. Tara FitzGibbons, Craig Fitzpatrick, John F. Sharkey IV, and Heather Sunser will each serve terms that will run through June 30, 2023. 

FitzGibbons is the business manager and group health administrator at FitzGibbons Agency, LLC in Oswego, an independent full-service insurance agency. She attended SUNY Oswego and earned her bachelor’s degree in 1994 and her master’s degree in organizational communication from SUNY Albany in 1996. FitzGibbons served as a board member/treasurer of the Friends of Oswego County Hospice board and served as an Oswego Hospital board member from 2009-2011. 

Fitzpatrick is a financial advisor at Pathfinder Bank, which is headquartered in Oswego. He attended St. John Fisher College and earned his bachelor’s degree in 2006. Fitzpatrick serves on the board of directors of the Child Advocacy Center of Oswego County, Fulton Kiwanis Club, and has served on the Oswego Health golf tournament committee for the past five years.

Sharkey is president of Universal Metal Works, a metal-fabrication firm in Fulton. He attended St. Lawrence University, where he majored in both math and economics and graduated in 2005. Sharkey additionally earned an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2007. 

Sunser is a partner and financial services practice group leader at Barclay Damon, LLP in Syracuse. She primarily concentrates her practice on real-estate law, institutional lending, land use, and municipal compliance. Sunser attended SUNY Albany and earned her bachelor’s degree in 1996. She also received a master’s degree from SUNY Oswego and law degree from Syracuse University College of Law. Sunser volunteers at Vera House Legal Clinic, Habitat for Humanity, Volunteer Lawyer Project of Onondaga County, and serves on the board of trustees for Onondaga County Bar Foundation.

The 2020-21 Oswego Health Foundation board of directors is also comprised of: Ed Alberts, chair; Peter Cullinan, vice chair; Mark Slayton, treasurer; Katie Toomey, secretary; as well as members, Julia Burns, Rachael A. Dator, Mary Ann Drumm, and Michael Harlovic, president & CEO of Oswego Health.