OSWEGO,NY- SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley says the campus can now transition back to in-person classes starting Monday. She says the campus has successfully slowed the spread of COVID-19. However, the only change permitted will be the transition to in-person classes.

This means students, on or off-campus, are still expected to limit their movements for essential purposes only. Student clubs and organizations cannot hold meetings in person. On-campus students cannot host visitors in their residence halls, including students from other dorms. The dining halls will still be takeout only.

All outlines in the SUNY-wide emergency directive will continue to be enforced at SUNY Oswego. The directive says a student’s card access can be revoked if a student fails to fill out their health screening or fails to take a mandatory COVID test, At a press conference today, President Stanley says no such issue has been brought to her attention where a student forgets to fill out their health screening or failed to take a test.

Oswego County Administrator Phil Church says the Oswego County Health Department approved SUNY Oswego’s decision to continue in-person classes. SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras praised the effort between the college and the community to contain the virus.

Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow says only one mass gathering was broken up during the two week pause.

According to SUNY Oswego’s COVID-19 dashboard, there are only 28 active cases of COVID-19 in the campus community and 30 counting towards the NYS-remote learning threshold.

Stanley says the school will continue surveillence testing which will take place every three weeks.

On November 7th, on a Wednesday, Oswego Theatre Department premieres their play “Shape of Things” originally written by Neil Labute.

Students in all years participate in this production and it is all prepared for the showing of the new show. Students such as Cassandra Slough and Adam Sommer took on the lead roles of this play.

Mya Brown, Director of the play and Assistant professor of theater tells her experience directing and the significance of the play. “There are some special messages within the play I would the audience to reflect on those things, what they think there are, so I don’t want to give anything away but I think the audience will definitely be challenged in their perspective of what beauty is, what art is, and how far in creating art.” She said. “I love to direct and it was amazing working with the other cast/staff members.” She also said.

Shelby Gilbert, one of the assistant director of the play also commented about the production. “It’s a great show. It is. This cast has worked so hard on this show. They have really put their all into the show and done some amazing work and I feel like everybody can learn a little something from the show and they can relate to different parts of the show.” She said.

Based on the story of Neil Labute, it emphasizes on the topic of relationships, identity, choices, and morals. With the main characters, Evelyn (Cassandra) and Adam (Adam), they both will play out the theme of the play.

“You should come see it!!”- Mya Brown

The play extends from November 7th to November 11th at Waterman.

For more theatre plays, you may visit https://www.oswego.edu/theatre/theatre-0