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- Aug. 18, 2020 | U of I Lab Up and...
- Title:
- Aug. 18, 2020 | U of I Lab Up and Running as Students Return to Campus
- Date:
- 2020-08-18
- Category:
- Presidential Memos
- Harvested from:
- https://perma.cc/H79Z-9K2U
- Type:
- text
- Digital Format:
- text/html
- Reference Link:
- https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/fridayletter/letters/president_memo_2020-08-18.html
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Aug. 18, 2020 | U of I Lab Up and Running as Students Return to Campus
TO: University of Idaho Moscow-Based Faculty and Staff
FROM: Scott Green, President
DATE: Aug. 18, 2020
SUBJECT: U of I Lab Up and Running as Students Return to Campus
We are all working hard preparing for the start of classes. This will be a fall like no other, and I expect we will continue to be challenged to provide the learning experience we have delivered on for over 130 years and that our students expect.
We have detailed our extensive plans to do all we can to reasonably protect our campus and community and that includes testing all of our students as they arrive on campus. Most of the COVID-19 testing in the country is done at private laboratories, and testing capacity in the state is limited.
To not be reliant on the variable turnaround times of private labs and to have a more fiscally efficient way to do ongoing testing throughout the academic year, we decided early on to set up our own lab. While we met all Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) standards over a week ago, we were required to meet some previously unknown criteria before our lab was authorized to begin analysis. Our lab is now testing samples as they arrive from our swabbing site. I cannot thank enough the entire U of I team including Dan New, Barrie Robison, Toni Broyles and the team at Gritman Medical Center for the Herculean effort to get this lab up and running. Few universities in the country have the capability we now have.
As of this morning, we have received results back on 3,694 tests, have 1,000 samples currently being processed, and have another 3,000 scheduled to be swabbed over the next week. We have an infectious rate of 0.97%. Most of the employees and students who tested positive live off campus and are isolating in their homes. However, we have five students who live on campus and are receiving care in our on-campus isolation facility.
Thanks to the leadership of Dan Ewart and Lindsey Brown, we will be providing instructors a daily report of students not eligible to be in the classroom. This list does not mean that a student has tested positive, rather it will likely mean that they have not been tested or have not received their results. We expect students who are not eligible at the beginning of classes to work remotely and I ask instructors to have patience with them. Those who might not have cleared will include international students we know will be arriving late, those who work in agriculture and are working a late harvest, and wildland firefighters.
Some of us will be challenged on enforcement of our policies. The provost provided guidance to faculty for handling ineligible students who arrive at class. If students, employees or visitors to our campus are not complying with the Healthy Vandal Pledge by wearing a face covering or other pledge standards, treat them with respect, and if they still refuse, call campus security.
Despite having tested all students on campus, our single most important tool to combat the virus is following the Healthy Vandal Pledge. The reality is that face coverings work. We have communicated with students and their families in emails and through town halls, making it clear what is at stake if the pledge is broken. We have worked tirelessly this summer to prepare for our students, and I am proud of how our faculty and staff have responded. I recognize that many on our team are exhausted from the extra work needed to prepare to open, but being Vandals, they just got it done. Let’s do our best to stay focused on our students and do all we can to ensure that, like those before us, we execute on our mission to provide the best learning environment possible. And as always:
Keep Calm and Vandal On.
Scott Green
President