BUFFALO N.Y. (WIVB) – As colleges and universities welcome students back to campus, students traveling from states with COVID-19 outbreaks will have to quarantine themselves.

Buffalo State College expects about 26 students coming from other states with high cases will have to quarantine themselves. College officials say several of those students have begun to do just that.

“We’re phasing them in,” said VP for student affairs Timothy Gordon. “We’re able to see if there’s a concern early, do the tracing and testing and all the things that we need to do so I think it really keeps everyone safe to know that we are phasing folks in and we’ll see if anything surfaces quickly and be able to respond to it and be able to everyone safe.”

The college set aside space on campus for students that need to isolate themselves for 14 days before school starts. Students did have the option to quarantine themselves in their permanent housing if they are not living with another student.

“The students living together are ones that have agreed by CDC guidelines to function as a family unit and they’ve agreed to self-isolate to monitor each others behaviors and do all the appropriate things to keep their unit safe,” Gordon said.

Students who are isolating themselves will have help with their classes as well as their meals delivered and laundry service.

At Canisius College, 130 students from out of state are quarantining, 100 of those students are on campus. For all students dorming on campus this fall, Canisius gave them the option to dorm by themselves or with a roommate.

“For our students we gave them an option,” said Canisius College VP for student affairs Daniel Dentino said. “If they’re residential we said look, if you’d like to have a single room assigned to you, we can make that happen. If you’d like to have another roommate, we can make that happen too but you have to sign a waiver indicating you understand you’ll be considered a family unit and that you will understand that risks involved with that.”

The college says more students chose to have a roommate for the upcoming school year.
Classes for Buffalo State and Canisius begin on August 31st.