At the University of Wisconsin-Platteville there is free COVID-19 testing for students and faculty. If a student or faculty member is experiencing symptoms or is asymptomatic, the university strongly recommends that they get tested. In a recent COVID-19 update video, Chancellor Dennis Shields said, “Simply put, not enough of you (students) are getting tested.”
In this video released on Oct. 2, 2020, Chancellor Shields announced that he needs students to voluntarily get tested on a regular basis to meet the quota set by the Centers for Disease Control. “CDC recommends considering initiation of an outbreak testing strategy with detection of a higher risk of transmission (≥ 50 per 100,000 within the last 14 days),” Chancellor Shields said.
However, some students and faculty are not getting tested. As of April of last year, the number of undergraduates on campus was 7,170 students. There have been 2,743 COVID tests given by Student Health Services on the main campus. Fewer than half of the students on campus have gotten tested, and multiple people have gotten tested twice.
“I have never been tested,” said UW-Platteville senior Connor Bergersen. Christopher Schulenburg, a Spanish professor at UW-Platteville, has not been tested either.
“I don’t see the need to be tested. However, I would get tested if someone I knew had COVID-19 or I was exposed to it.” Bergersen added.
Schulenburg agreed with this statement, as did many other people here on campus. There are currently twenty-eight active cases for the university with about 7,170 students.
Overall, there have been 268 positive tests received since the start of the academic school year. Therefore, for every 29 individuals, one has been infected. According to Chancellor Shields, relative to other colleges, this university has lower case numbers. UW-Platteville has remained open due to students and faculty getting tested.
On Oct. 2 Chancellor Shields announced through a video that “The Center for Disease Control recommends that we all get tested every two weeks, and I, along with our entire UW-System, agree with that assessment. Testing is crucial in identifying and slowing any hot spots that we may have on campus.”
Ultimately, Chancellor Shields, with the counsel of the University Board and the guidelines from the CDC, has the final say on deciding how many mandatory tests are needed. Hundreds of volunteer testers are needed to keep the mandatory tests at bay.
Furthermore, Student Health Services is looking to hire students to take others’ temperatures as there are not enough volunteers. In the first part of the semester, UW-Platteville had the ability to test around one hundred students a day, but now the University has enough equipment to test, at maximum, four hundred students a day according to Chancellor Shields.
Nancy Hammermeister, a political science professor on campus, adds, “I think having more data gives us a better view of things. We would know if it really is an issue on campus if we had more numbers.”
“Realistically, we ought to be testing somewhere between 150 to 200 students a day,” said Chancellor Shields. After the weekly update video, there has been a spike in volunteer testers going to get tested. However, the positive cases have not gone up since more people are getting tested.
One key takeaway is to stay active in reading emails and updates from UW-Platteville to remain informed about the COVID-19 situation on campus.