SUNY News Release

SUNY Launches 26 PSAs #KnowYourVax in Nine Languages Including American Sign Language, Arabic, English, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Spanish, Tagalog, and Yiddish Featuring SUNY Health Experts on Vaccine Facts

35 Campuses Serving as State and County-Run Locations As New York State Opens Eligibility for More New Yorkers

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Contact: Holly Liapis; Holly.Liapis@suny.edu; 518-320-1311

Utica, NY – State University of New York Chancellor Jim Malatras announced today from the SUNY Polytechnic Institute vaccination site that about 530,000 vaccines have been administered on 35 SUNY campuses serving as active state and county-run vaccination sites. Each day approximately 14,000 doses are provided to more eligible New Yorkers as the state receives vaccine supplies and opens eligibility. Additional SUNY campus locations are prepared to serve.

SUNY also launched additional public service announcements, #KnowYourVax, from SUNY health practitioners and experts to counter misinformation in the public domain about the COVID-19 vaccine. 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.

“SUNY has helped administer more than a half a million vaccines because more than half of our campuses are serving as vaccination centers,” said Chancellor Malatras. “As more people become vaccine eligible, SUNY is also launching a series of PSAs designed to dispel misinformation and educate the public about the benefits of the FDA-approved vaccines. The last year has been a tremendous test of our collective resilience, and at every dark corner, we’ve relied on the best of humanity to provide the light needed for the path ahead. That’s been true at SUNY, where we will continue to pool our efforts and expertise to help society defeat COVID-19 for good.”

SUNY Poly Acting President Tod A. Laursen said, “SUNY Poly is proud to join a number of SUNY institutions to host a New York State Department of Health-led vaccination site. Last week marked the milestone of the 50,000th shot at the SUNY Poly Utica campus Point of Delivery site and we are honored to continue to support the health of our entire community, and especially those most vulnerable to this disease.”

To date, SUNY Poly’s Utica site has seen more than 57,000 vaccinations administered.

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.

SUNY state-operated campuses serving as state or county vaccination locations include: University at Albany, Binghamton University, University at Buffalo, SUNY Cortland, SUNY Fredonia, SUNY Morrisville, Old Westbury, SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Oswego, SUNYPlattsburgh, SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica, SUNY Potsdam, and Stony Brook University (5 campus and hospital sites). The SUNY hospitals at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and Upstate Medical University have also provided vaccines to healthcare and other essential workers. Combined, the locations have been the sites for more than 408,000 doses.

SUNY’s community colleges—Broome, Clinton, Columbia-Greene, Corning, Erie (2 sites), Fulton-Montgomery, Genesee, Herkimer, Hudson Valley, Jamestown, Jefferson, Mohawk Valley, Nassau, North Country, Orange (2 sites), Schenectady, Suffolk (2 sites), Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester—house state and county-run sites, serving nearly 125,000 vaccinations to date.

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, the state’s only college of optometry, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.3 million students in 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 were more than $1.0 billion in fiscal year 2020, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visitwww.suny.edu.

###