News: Student workers receive the COVID-19 vaccine Page 4
Opinion: Pandemic response shows healthy democracy Page 8
Sports: Deacon Spotlight: Freshman tennis player Luciano Tacchi Page 13
Life: Meme war rages amongst student body Page 16
Old Gold&Black
WAKE FOREST’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1916 VO L . 107 , N O . 17
T H U R S DAY, M A RC H 4 , 2 0 21 “Cover s the campus like the magnolias”
wfuogb.com
University will transition to Yellow Two weeks after "Dark Orange" status, the university is optimistic about falling COVID-19 cases BY JACK BRADLEY Contributing Writer bradjc20@wfu.edu Almost two weeks after the University’s initial transition from “Dark Orange” operating status, and almost one week after Governor Cooper lifted North Carolina’s 10 p.m. curfew, the university intends to transition to Yellow operating status. An advance copy of an email that will be sent to students was obtained by the Old Gold & Black. This emai reads that the university intends to switch to Yellow status within the next week or so. For the moment, the COVID-19 panic and empty campus of a few weeks ago have been replaced with students lounging on the quad and a more hopeful outlook for the future. What was a stressful and tumultuous time for many students, faculty, staff and administrators seems to have shifted into a period of quasi-relaxation.
See Yellow, Page 4 Katie Fox/Old Gold & Black
Results from tests conducted on Feb. 15 and 16 were delayed for days, according to several students. Some students had been COVID-positive for several days before being informed by BioReference and Wake Forest.
Wake Forest mishandled hundreds of COVID-19 tests Weather issues, among other factors, delayed the return of COVID-19 test results for days BY ELIZABETH MALINE Senior Writer malied17@wfu.edu Amidst the whirlwind of COVID-19 news over the past few weeks, many students waited days on end for results from their random asymptomatic COVID-19 tests administered by the university. After coronavirus cases began to creep up at the start of this semester, the university altered the asymptomatic testing policy and began to test the entire undergraduate population each week, rather than only a random sample, which amounted to roughly one-third of the
population. Students normally receive their results in an email from BioReference Lab, the university’s lab partner, 36 to 48 hours after a test is administered. “We noticed during the week of Feb. 15 and 16 that we hadn’t received results,” Dr. Cecil Price, Director of Student Health Services (SHS) said. “We called the lab and asked what was happening, and they said they hadn’t received any samples.” Per Price, the samples had always arrived at the lab the next day without fail. Dr. Price grew concerned, as samples must be tested within 72 hours of collection in order to be considered valid. Though he claims the university packed and refrigerated the samples correctly, they still had not arrived at the lab. He later learned that due to the winter storm, FedEx experienced problems get-
Floor caves in during off-campus party Dozens of people were at the residence, which is leased by brothers of Chi Psi fraternity BY AINE PIERRE News Editor pierav20@wfu.edu
ting the shipments to the lab in Gaithersburg, Md. The company was prioritizing shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine. On Feb. 17, students who were administered COVID-19 tests on Feb. 15 and 16 received an email from the Office of Communications and External Relations saying that “weather issues” delayed the arrival of the test samples from BioReference Lab. The posting of the results would therefore be delayed as well. In the meantime, Dr. Price and SHS made plans to get the test samples from Feb. 18 and Feb. 19 to the lab in a more timely fashion given the nature of the winter storm (for which the university decided to cancel classes on Feb. 18). According to Dr. Price, a university employee personally drove the samples to the lab to ensure their arrival.
There was no fire burning on the dance floor, but there was a gaping hole when the Winston-Salem police and fire departments arrived on the scene of an off-campus party involving Wake Forest students on Palm Dr. Saturday night. The party took place at an off-campus house, 948 Palm Drive, which was rented by four members of Wake Forest’s chapter of the Chi Psi Fraternity. It has been estimated that dozens of people attended the event. No social distancing or mask-wearing was evident at the party, a fact which is the basis of an investigation being conducted by the university into the circumstances of the function.
See Tests, Page 5
See Party, Page 6