University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Spring Welcome Back 2021
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Students react to updated COVID response By Sofia Vento STAFF WRITER
With the spring semester underway, students are acclimating to the updated university measures intended to curb the spread of COVID-19 on campus and across the Madison area. This semester, a significant change in the university coronavirus response is the increase in the scope and frequency of testing on and offcampus. Undergraduate students living in residence halls and off-campus Madison residences are now required to test twice a week — once every eight days for graduate students — in order to utilize campus spaces. However, difficulties with scheduled appointments and rejected saliva tests have forced the university to delay enforcement of their testing requirements until the third week of the semester and also switch to dropin only testing. University officials continue to stress that the fall semester served as a crucial example for the new testing plan. UW higher-ups have emphasized how extensive use of PCR nasal and new saliva testing on and off campus will better ensure that
COVID-19 cases are identified early and dealt with in accordance with public health guidelines. According to a Wednesday email from the Office of the Chancellor, in the past week, over 20,000 coronavirus tests have been completed, far below the university’s capacity ofabout 12,000 nasal-swab tests and 70,000 saliva-based tests per week. As of Wednesday, there have been 35 positive cases, among students and employees, since classes resumed on Jan. 25. UW-Madison has also increased the use of saliva-based tests rather than the nasal-swab testing used exclusively last semester. The two testing locations utilized by University Housing students will continue to rely on nasal-swab tests while all other testing locations have shifted to the use of saliva-based tests, sparking concern among students. On Jan. 21, a petition was created asking university officials to reconsider their reliance on saliva-based testing this semester, describing the updated plan as a “waste of students time,” given that the saliva-based test takes longer to self-collect than the
nasal-swab test. As of Jan. 27, around 850 individuals have signed the petition calling for an “easier and more efficient” testing strategy. Petitioners are also concerned that the testing process at facilities is unsafe, but Baggott confirmed that there has been no evidence of COVID-19 spread at testing sites at UW-Madison or the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the institution in which the revised COVID-19 plan this spring is modeled from. A sizable concern regarding saliva-based testing is the rejection of collected samples and the inability of some to perform the tests. Many students at testing sites have completed tests and received word that their samples were rejected or inconclusive while others have been at test sites — unable to produce saliva or been told that their sample is unusable — and sent home without completing the COVID-19 test. “We’ve had some people that have gotten upset when their vial was rejected on site,” said Maggie King, a UW-Madison sophomore and student employee at a campus testing site. Chancellor Blank and university
officials have attempted to address these issues by sending out tips to the campus community meant to support students in providing samples that will be received by the labs but many continue to experience issues with the testing process. Sydney Mueller, a UW-Madison sophomore, has been unable to complete her mandatory saliva-based test since returning to campus. “I was unable to produce enough saliva to even fill a small part of the tube and I had to leave the testing center untested,” explained Mueller — citing a medical condition and subsequent operation that left her with one functioning salivary gland that influences her ability to produce saliva. The organization of the testing — the staff and the system — was efficient but the saliva-test itself was not pleasant, said Mueller. King also highlighted how site managers have been skillful in dealing with issues while remaining committed to keeping testers safe. Mueller is worried that a potential exemption from saliva testing due to her medical condition will be denied — ultimately affecting her ability to
complete the mandatory testing and the safety of the Madison community. As the university adjusts its plan while community comments and issues arise, students, like Mueller, are left with questions and concerns. “Although they advertise wait times, I feel that the hours in the morning and around lunch will be incredibly busy as that is when everyone is free,” said Mueller about the university testing’s shift to dropin only. “I am also concerned about the university’s handling of medical exemptions and why the steps for filing for one were never made explicitly clear.” The university’s coronavirus response FAQ page states that students should request medical accommodations relating to testing through the McBurney Disability Resource Center. The university has also been working with the laboratory that processes the saliva-based tests to better ensure that results come back within 24 hours, according to the Jan. 27
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State leaders disagree over fixing outdated employment system By Hope Karnopp STATE NEWS EDITOR
Gov. Tony Evers and the Republican-controlled legislature cannot agree on a way to begin modernizing the unemployment system that left many Wisconsinites stuck in the process as the pandemic worsened. During the pandemic, some Wisconsinites have waited months to receive benefits. One applicant currently waiting for payment is UW-Madison senior and former Daily Cardinal writer Ben Farrell, who lost his job at Porter - Bandit after the cafe experienced financial hardships related to the pandemic. Last week, Farrell applied for backpay for each of the twelve weeks he was not working. Based on “anecdotal evidence” he’s heard, he thinks it’s “highly unlikely” that he would receive payment within two weeks. “If loads of people are going to start looking to [the system] as a way to keep their lives moving forward, then it definitely needs to be faster,” Farrell said. The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) announced in late December that they “reached a workload comparable to seasonal pre-pandemic levels,” effectively clearing a large backlog, according to Secretary-designee Amy Pechacek. Farrell said he is not worried about paying for groceries or being
evicted from his apartment, but is trying to maintain a good financial position as a student. “For me, I can sit here and twiddle my thumbs,” he said. “But if I had been given the level of information I was and were in more significantly dire financial straits, I would be freaking out.” A December Legislative Audit Bureau report showed that as of October, the DWD paid over half of initial claims for regular program benefits within two weeks. It took the department more than five weeks to pay nearly a quarter of them. The average time the DWD took to pay claims declined between
March and August. The DWD was responsible for 11 of the 13 weeks on average that it took to resolve the claims of 250 of 268 individuals who filed initial claims from March 15 through April 11 and had not received payment as of June 20. According to the bureau, that means the DWD was not resolving issues even when it had the information to do so, or was not requesting necessary information from individuals and employers. The DWD responded that those measures of inactivity do not “correlate directly” with the agency’s processes, noting that some timelines might be outside of the department’s
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control. Still, Pechacek noted that the delays were “undisputed.” According to the DWD, the department has processed more claims since the onset of the pandemic than they handled from 2016 to 2019 combined. Over half a million claimants have been paid over $4.9 billion in benefits. In the most recent three weeks reported by the DWD, at least 3,980 people in Dane County alone filed initial unemployment claims. Over 23,000 weekly claims were filed in the county during that time period. Gov. Tony Evers fired Secretary Caleb Frostman in mid-September after facing pressure from Republicans over a huge backlog of claims that accumulated during the pandemic. Days later, the Legislative Audit Bureau reported that less than one percent of calls to the agency were answered between March 15 and June 30. Farrell said he called the department to sort out some confusing parts of the application, including adding information about previous freelance work and determining what full-time work means as a student. He said the department quickly answered the phone and was able to go into the system to help him edit his application. “Maybe I was on hold for two minutes,” Farrell said, adding that he’s heard of other cases where people were put on hold for much
longer. “Putting myself in the shoes of somebody whose living situation or food security is on the line, and you’re f*cking waiting on hold, I can’t even imagine.” Technical difficulties On Wednesday morning, the Senate Committee on Economic and Workforce Development heard from Wisconsinites who spent multiple months stuck in the process and called the DWD hundreds of times for assistance. Multiple speakers said DWD employees gave them conflicting information. They also said they received more help from their state representatives than they did from DWD. Victor Forberger, an attorney specializing in labor and unemployment, said modernization would be a long process that could take up to four years. He estimates the hearing backlog for appeals is about 25,000, saying one of his clients may not receive a hearing until October 2021. Pechacek later testified that as of Saturday, 3,400 adjudication issues were awaiting scheduling. “If you want to fix this problem right now, put legislation on the floor tomorrow removing some issues,” Forberger said. “If the department won’t do it through its emergency rules process, you need to do it through the law.”
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“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”