10-1-2020

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UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA

CEDAR FALLS, IA

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VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42

VOLUME 117, ISSUE 13

COLLEGE HILL

FILM REVIEW

PANTHERS IN NFL

NEWS PAGE 2

CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 4

SPORTS PAGE 6

College Hill Partnership resumes “Imagine College Hill” project that began earlier this year.

Film Critic Hunter Frisen reviews Enola Holmes.

Three former Panthers excel as they take on the NFL.

Health Center implements test fee ELIZABETH KELSEY News Editor

In a video released by the university on Sept. 24, Director of Student Health and Well-being Services Shelley O’Connell said that the health center’s COVID19 testing, which is currently free, will shift to a cost of $80. She explained that the new fee, which will be billed to students’ health insurance, is being implemented due to a need to return a borrowed piece of testing equipment to the state. “The testing is being done through the state hygenics lab, (and) they have been kind enough to loan us an analyzer and the re-agent for that, so there’s no cost associated with it,” she said. “There’s also no cost associated if a test goes to the state hygenics lab for processing. But soon, we will have to return that analyzer, and we will have to start billing for it. So there will be a charge of $80.” In a phone interview with

the Northern Iowan on Sept. 29, UNI student body president Elle Boeding said that the Student Health Center does not have specific dates at this time as to when the change will take effect. “State health has literally just been telling us ‘sometime in September,’ but September ends in two days,” she said. “We haven’t gotten any communication from them, so it makes it kind of hard to tell our students and… make people aware so they can know what their resources are.” Boeding, who serves as the Northern Iowa Student Government (NISG) representative on the UNI COVID-19 Response Team, said that the Student Health Center will be purchasing a new analyzer to replace the one they must return. To her knowledge, she said, the university had always wanted to and planned to purchase their own analyzer, but was unable to get one right away, leading them to borrow the ana-

GABI CUMMINGS/Northern Iowan

Students and campus community members seeking a COVID-19 test at the UNI Student Health Center will soon face a fee of $80.

lyzer from the state. Since it was loaned, they were able to offer testing for free, but now that the

Student Health Center must pay to purchase their own analyzer, they must start charging for

tests to offset that cost.

ELIZABETH KELSEY

Frequently Asked Questions page of its website. “Masks are meant to protect other people in case you are infected, and not to protect you from becoming infected.” I o w a ’s State Epidemiologist Dr. Caitlin Pedati acknowledged at Tuesday’s press conference that the new Iowa guidelines differ from the CDC’s. In defense of the new rules, she cited studies which have indicated the effectiveness of mask-wearing in close contact scenarios. She also mentioned states such as Wyoming and Nebraska which have adopted similar modifications to their quarantine guidelines. The new rule does not apply in health care settings, such as hospitals and nursing homes, nor to persons wearing only face shields. Reynolds said the change was made to help schools

keep students in class. “In some situations, (schools are) having to quarantine a disproportionately high number of students when just a few positive cases have been identified,” she said Tuesday. The UNI campus faced a similar issue earlier in the semester, as reported by the Northern Iowan on Sept. 3. “Our concern is not with people getting sick, it is that too many healthy students are being asked to sit out of class,” wrote Patrick Pease, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, in an email to the Northern Iowan on Sept. 1. The university responded by shifting the locations of more than 100 in-person classes to more spacious rooms in order to reduce the number of students sitting within six feet of each other.

See TEST COST, page 2

IDPH adjusts quarantine recommendations News Editor

TONI FORTMANN/Northern Iowan

UNI follows IDPH recommendations regarding quarantine of close contact cases if both people wore face coverings during the exposure.

In a campus-wide message on Tuesday, Sept. 29, the university announced that in keeping with new guidelines from the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH), “close contacts of COVID-positive cases will no longer need to quarantine for 14 days if a face covering was consistently and correctly worn by both people during the exposure.” The change in Iowa policy, which was announced by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds at Tuesday’s press conference, runs counter to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations. “You are still considered a close contact even if you were wearing a mask while you were around someone with COVID-19,” the CDC states on the COVID-19

See QUARANTINE, page 2


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10-1-2020 by Northern Iowan - Issuu