Chancellor Malatras Announces First COVID-19 Shots Administered for Faculty and Staff at SUNY Sullivan Vaccination Site
March 19, 2021
Follows SUNY’s Launch of #ItsYourTurn COVID-19 Vaccine Awareness Campaign as More Public-Facing Employees are Eligible
Photos are Available Online Here
Loch Sheldrake, NY – State University of New York Chancellor Jim Malatras today announced the first COVID-19 shots were administered for faculty and staff at SUNY Sullivan’s vaccination site, as more public-facing employees are eligible for a vaccine. This follows SUNY’s launch earlier this week of the #ItsYourTurn COVID-19 vaccine awareness campaign targeted at SUNY employees represented by state and local unions.
The SUNY Sullivan campus has been serving the community as a county-run vaccination site, and is nearing 3,000 vaccinations administered as of today. In addition to providing a safe and efficient space to administer vaccines at the Paul Gerry Field House, SUNY Sullivan President Jay Quaintance along with SUNY Sullivan nursing students and staff are regularly volunteering at the site.
"SUNY Sullivan staff and faculty have banded together, as have their colleagues across SUNY—going above and beyond to make sure our students are safe and still getting a high-quality education during these unprecedented times, and I am happy to see them start to get a vaccine," said Chancellor Malatras. "My heartfelt thanks to the President Quaintance and the SUNY Sullivan family for making resources available for this vaccination site, and for their long hours volunteering to help each other and their neighbors get a lifesaving vaccine."
SUNY Sullivan President Quaintance said, "Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, SUNY Sullivan has worked to support our community. We donated PPE, used our 3D printers to manufacture face shields, loaned respirators to Garnet Health Catskills, provided access to Wi-Fi and other efforts. Using our Paul Gerry Fieldhouse as a vaccine distribution site is just the latest in our efforts. We are proud to work with our County Health offices and support this vital work."
While on campus, Chancellor Malatras and President Quaintance also met with students and faculty as the spring semester continues. The campus resumed limited in-person classes for the nursing, culinary, and theatre programs, and tests students, faculty, and staff weekly. The group discussed the proposed 2021-2022 budget, and the potential for commencement and the fall semester.
Amongst SUNY's system of 64 campuses, 35 are currently serving as active vaccination sites, some with multiple locations to provide safe spaces for more New Yorkers to be vaccinated. So far, more than 550,000 vaccines have been administered at SUNY campuses, with approximately 14,000 appointments scheduled each day as vaccine allotment continues to grow.
SUNY recently launched two campaigns to inform New Yorkers about the vaccine. The #KnowYourVax campaign is a series of 26 PSAS designed to dispel misinformation and provide students with key facts as vaccine eligibility rapidly expands. The PSAs are in nine languages, including American Sign Language, Arabic, English, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Spanish, Tagalog, and Yiddish, to make sure that more New Yorkers understand the vaccine facts.
The comprehensive #ItsYourTurn outreach effort is a multipronged campaign that will include a series of PSAs, as well as direct and repeated email outreach outlining the benefits of the FDA-approved Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines and instructions for where and how to make an appointment. It was announced this week with union leaders from the Civil Service Employees Association, the New York State Public Employees Federation, and United University Professions.
About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and annually one in three New Yorkers who earn a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
Share this:
Holly Liapis
518-320-1311
Email the Office of Communications
