A herd of maskless freshmen running through the quad is a harrowing sight on any day, but it hits differently in the middle of a pandemic. The video of the event, captured by the ~illustrious~ @BarstoolCuse, was a gut-punch to any student who dared to hope for a semi-normal school year, and the campus was quick to lash out.

Instagram commenters started by characterizing the people involved as “selfish,” urging Syracuse University to suspend the wrongdoers and preserve this last chance at in-person classes and some mild sense of familiarity. The school itself even found time to play the disappointed parent, dejectedly hypothesizing that, “The students who gathered on the Quad last night may have done damage enough to shut down campus.”

Someone more cynical than the team at JERK might find this rather convenient for the University. A catch-all excuse for any future negativity that may occur on a campus that was ill-prepared to begin with. They might even begin to wonder how such a large group of freshmen were able to gather in the first place, making it all the way from the dorms to the quad without being stopped by a single RA, DPS officer, or other campus administrator. In fact, in some ways, what these reckless students pulled off was a pretty impressive feat for a University sworn to cracking down on no-good miscreants. How could they have forgotten the Stay Safe Pledge already?

Admittedly, the school’s original plan sounded pretty straightforward (in theory). If students would only adhere to the guidelines established by their beloved university, everything would turn out great, right? If kids could just stay quarantined in their dorms the whole semester, the University would be able to protect them, right? If everyone just did what they were supposed to do, everything would turn out fine.

Because the University truly has our best interest at heart… right?

Of course, even the skeptics aren’t going to sit here and defend students who actively put themselves and others in danger. We certainly aren’t. They made the conscious decision to abandon safe practices and should be held accountable for their actions.

But let’s make one thing clear: if anyone has “selfishly jeopardized” your safety this year, it’s not just the freshmen— it’s your own school.

The idea that your University isn’t being 100% transparent with you is a really shitty pill to swallow. We want to believe that the place we call home genuinely cares about us and our well-being, but if that was really true, why are we still on campus to begin with? Why are faculty members not being tested? Why are dorms still close to full-capacity? Why did the school allow a fleet of students to congregate so easily before classes even started? These are just a few of the many questions on everyone’s mind.

We could be wrong. Maybe the school genuinely does believe that we can make it through this whole semester safely. Maybe SU really does think that going back to school is safer than remote learning. Maybe they aren’t in it exclusively for your housing check. But just in case this isn’t the full-truth, keep your focus and remember who’s actually responsible for your safety, because at the end of the day, it’s not a floor of freshmen. Oh, and go orange!

Hot Take: The Freshmen Were Bad, But So Was SU