Surveillance Testing

From left, sophomores Bella Cassaday and Sadie Hofford drop off saliva self-collection COVID-19 tests in Egbert Hall during the 2021–22 school year. Left: Thomas Kerrigan/The Ithacan. Right: Anna Brodhead/The Ithacan

CAMPUS COMMUNITY VOICES CONCERNS ABOUT RANDOMIZED COVID-19 SURVEILLANCE TESTING

BY NATHAN MOONE

Some Ithaca College students have voiced their disappointment with the lack of clear communication from the college as it has reimplemented surveillance testing for vaccinated students. With some classes turning to online learning, there have been multiple instances in which students and faculty said they feel the COVID-19 guidelines have not been properly enforced. In an email to the campus community Sept. 3, the college announced that random individuals will be selected to participate in newly reimplemented surveillance testing. Students who are selected to test each week receive an email on Monday morning and have the option to submit a test Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Unlike in the spring, the randomized testing is not mandatory, even for those selected to test during the week. Samm Swarts, assistant director for emergency preparedness and response, said that the surveillance testing is not mandatory because there is not a necessity. Freshman Keely Crane said she primarily agreed with the randomized testing and thought it was a good step for the college, although she thought there was still room for improvement. “When I got the email for the frst time, I thought it was honestly a good idea because I feel like more testing is better than no testing at all,” Crane said. “I even feel with the randomizing eventually it will get to most of the population, so ultimately I feel like it’s a good idea.” Freshman Brendon Peau said he felt worried about the reach that randomized testing had and how there were groups of students left out of this weekly testing that could cause COVID-19 cases to remain hidden. Peau said the testing should be an evolving process that grows from concerns the campus community might have. He said that having this in place was the frst step to fnding more ways to keep students safe while living on campus. “I think the randomized [testing] is a good start,” Peau said. “It’ll start evolving. They’ll fgure it out at a point. I’m happy we’re at least doing it right now.” Sophomore Tara Dikyikhangsar said she agreed with how the school handled COVID-19 testing. However, she said she thinks randomized testing was not something that the college should continue with in the long term, as she was worried it might put students at risk. “I think it’s good that they’re at least doing the random testing, but I think we should probably get tested once a week maybe just to keep track of the cases … especially because people are still partying,” Dikyikhangsar said. Junior Gabi Shapiro said she thought there was some confusion between the college and the student body as to how surveillance testing would work. Shapiro said she did not like the lack of enforcement of the mask policy and how randomized testing was not mandatory. All members of the campus community were required to wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status. “Well, I think at the start there was miscommunication because people were under the assumption that if you were picked then you would have to,” she said. “But they are doing it where it is voluntary, so if you’re picked you don’t have to. And I think that’s just stupid because then what’s the point of having randomized testing? I haven’t gone to two of my classes because students aren’t following mask mandates.” Approximately 99% of the student population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, yet faculty and staff are still exempt from the vaccination requirement with 78% of faculty and staff vaccinated as of Aug. 24. On social media, some students have voiced their concerns over randomized testing. Twitter user @tc2426 criticized the voluntary aspects of the randomized testing by tweeting “Ithaca College said we are gonna do randomized testing but if you have symptoms then [don’t worry] it’s voluntary.” Senior Brianna Lowe said she felt like necessary information was not being distributed to the campus community quickly enough. She felt that the college should go back to how it handled COVID-19 last semester with twice-weekly testing for all students. “I think that it came way too late in the semester. I think we should have started with randomized testing,” she said. “I feel more safe now that the randomized testing is in effect, but do I feel 100% safe in the class? No, because COVID is still a big thing going on.”