Many area colleges spent the summer creating safe reopening plans knowing that a coronavirus outbreak would send students back home. Nazareth College has launched a data dashboard to track the number of positive cases on campus. Nazareth has seen a handful of cases since the school reopened more than a week ago.

“Certainly, we are in a dense community with a lot of higher education institutions and so it comes back down to our messaging and reminding of our protocols and safety measures that our community needs to have in place," said Kim Harvey, co-chairperson of the Nazareth College re-opening task force.

Nazareth will continue to track and closely monitor the cases before further steps are needed.

“Our task force is working closely with our local county health department as well as taking state guidance," said Harvey.

Rochester Institute of Technology had also launched a COVID-19 tracker and in the past week has reported several positive cases of the virus.

“If they close, I’m going to be pretty sad. Because I took a six-hour drive to come here to learn in person, because I don’t like doing the online classes and stuff, so. I want the interactive in-person learning even if I have to stay six feet away, wear the mask on," said RIT student Tyrke Chin. 

At the College at Brockport, students are expected to be back for face-to-face learning next Monday. The task force there has posted an online video outlining health and safety guidelines for students.

“We're trying to give them that experience they signed up for, but along with that comes some restrictions in order to keep our community safe," said John Follaco, the College at Brockport director of communications.

Colleges say students will have to be disciplined and adhere to the pandemic guidelines.

“Our goal is to remain in person. Our goal is to finish our fall semester at the Thanksgiving mark. And that’s going to come with us following those protocols and procedures," said Harvey.