Talks with Torrey is a biweekly question and answer-based Zoom call hosted by University of Idaho Interim Provost and Executive Vice President Torrey Lawrence. In this series, we summarize the main points of each of these calls. If you have questions for Lawrence, you can submit them on the Talks with Torrey website at least 24 hours before the next event.
UI Dean of Students Blaine Eckles and UI COVID-19 Response Manager Seth Vieux joined Lawrence on this week’s edition of Talks with Torrey to answer questions from faculty and staff about COVID-19 testing and the upcoming semester. Previous Talks with Torrey coverage can be found on our website by searching the Talks with Torrey tag.
This was the last edition of Talks with Torrey for the summer, but a similar series will continue during the school year. The times and dates of the academic year question and answer series are to be determined.
UI is hosting a COVID-19 town hall meeting for students and families 6-7 p.m. Aug. 13. Participants must register beforehand to attend, but the recorded session will be posted to the UI COVID-19 website afterwards. For more information on the upcoming town hall, read the brief on our website.
UI-based COVID-19 testing
- As of Aug. 11, about 5,400 people have been tested or are scheduled to be tested through the UI testing site, Vieux said.
- UI aims to test over 10,000 people, according to an email sent Aug. 11 by UI Special Assistant to the President Toni Broyles.
- All students living on campus or attending in-person classes are required to be tested for COVID-19.
- Students living on campus who refuse to be tested will have their housing contracts terminated, Vieux said.
- Students who are not living on campus or attending in-person classes will not be required to be tested for COVID-19, Vieux said.
- Faculty and staff are not required to be tested for COVID-19 because of legal concerns related to requiring public institution employees to undergo medical exams, Vieux said.
- All employees are strongly encouraged to be tested for COVID-19.
- “We have a stronger legal argument to mandate (COVID-19 testing) for students that are going to live in our buildings and come into our classrooms than we do with (employees),” Vieux said.
- Those who are tested are not required to quarantine themselves before their results are returned, as the tests are not being done because there is reason to believe the individuals are sick, Vieux said.
- Individuals are still highly encouraged to minimize contact with others and follow other common measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, like wearing masks and washing hands, while waiting for results.
- Those who test negative for COVID-19 will be sent an email. Those who test positive will receive a phone call from a physician in Lewiston, Vieux said.
- If a student does not respond to phone calls from the physician, the student’s information will be shared with UI so the university can assist in contacting the student.
- The UI-based analysis lab is not up and running yet.
- There are two steps left before the lab, located inside a Gritman Medical Center facility, will be CLIA certified, Vieux said. Vieux is confident the UI-based lab will be certified by Monday, but there is no definitive time the lab will be complete.
- Until the UI lab is certified, LabCorp labs are handling the analysis of tests.
- It takes LabCorp three to five days to report results from COVID-19 tests, Vieux said. Lawrence, UI President C. Scott Green and other administrators repeatedly said results from UI tests would be available in 24-48 hours.
- There have been technical issues related to scheduling tests, Vieux said. These issues tend to be about rescheduling. The test site itself, however, is running efficiently and smoothly.
- Vieux said those who need assistance with technical issues related to scheduling can email [email protected] for help.
- There is a slight back-up the first thirty minutes after the testing site opens for the day, but otherwise there have not been issues with queues forming. When there are no queues, the process takes less than ten minutes from parking at the site to leaving, Vieux said.
- There have been no reported issues with people failing to wear face coverings or social distance at the testing site.
- Information on how often people will be able to be retested for COVID-19 is to be determined, Vieux said.
- This decision will be made and publicized once all results from the initial round of testing are returned, Vieux said.
- Postponing this decision will allow the university to better understand reasonable testing needs, as testing supplies are not easy to get ahold of.
- There is no plan to charge for testing through the UI site, even if multiple tests are completed for one person.
- Results from COVID-19 tests conducted through UI will be published on the university’s website.
- Vieux expects the first round of results to be published this Friday, Aug. 14.
- Results will be published once per week on the university website with no information about the age, sex or race of those who test positive.
- More detailed demographic information and daily updates for the public health district serving Latah County and the state of Idaho are available on the Public Health — Idaho North Central District and state government websites.
- Contacting those who have been in contact with people who test positive for COVID-19 will depend on judgment from PH-INCD.
- If it is determined a classmate, officemate or other student, staff or faculty member was put at risk for contracting COVID-19, PH-INCD and UI will reach out to the relevant people.
Concerns about behavior
- “I’m being very blunt with (students). Whether we stay open as an institution or not is 100% in their hands in regards to their behavior,” Eckles said. “If they want to have a short time at (UI) they’ll just continue with the behavior they’re exhibiting. I’m being very blunt in saying ‘we’re doing everything we can to create an in-person experience for you, but if you’re going to screw it up, then we’re going to be out of here in short order as a result of your behavior.’”
- Those with concerns about students not following COVID-19-related guidelines, whether they are Greek Life, Housing and Residence Life or off-campus graduate or undergraduate students, can email pictures and descriptions of the violations to [email protected]. Greek Life-specific concerns can be sent to [email protected].
- UI College of Engineering Director of Student Services Paulette House said she saw students on Greek row not wearing face coverings or practicing social distancing earlier this week. Other employees, including Associate Professor of Chemistry Patrick Hrdlicka, expressed similar concerns.
- The university is aware of this, Eckles said. The Dean of Students Office has been in contact with council and chapter presidents to prevent further issues from arising, including setting up further restrictions and fining houses or individuals who repeatedly violate COVID-19-related guidelines.
- Eckles said Greek Life leaders understand the severity of the situation, but other students may not believe following the guidelines is important. The university and fraternity and sorority chapters are working to educate these individuals.
- “I visited with fraternity leadership yesterday on this in person,” Eckles said. “I said ‘you all need to correct this or I’ll have to step in and we’ll do something more drastic to address this, if necessary.’”
- Hrdlicka expressed concerns about using the honors system in classes where double checking whether each student is eligible to be in a classroom is impossible.
- UI will not be providing additional staff to ensure only students who are eligible to enter classrooms are attending in-person classes, even in larger classes. This responsibility falls to the instructor.
- “Truthfully, you’re not going to know (if all students in larger classes are eligible to be in the classroom),” Eckles said. “I think this is something we need faculty to lean in and create crystal clear communications to start off the classes, at least the first week or two until things settle in on your rosters, in regards to explaining why you should not be in this class until your test result comes in.”
- Assistant Professor of Anthropology Katrina Eichner expressed concerns about Vandals Dining encouraging patrons to return to the Chick-fil-A in the Idaho Student Union Building by providing free children’s meals.
- The ISUB is connected to the Teaching and Learning Center, which holds classes during Chick-fil-A business hours.
- Encouraging community members to enter buildings where students will be going to classes could increase the risk of spreading COVID-19, Eichner said.
- UI security and the Moscow Police Department may assist UI employees if people refuse to wear face coverings in buildings.
- The first step will be to educate the person to ensure they understand the university’s face covering expectation and the reasons behind it.
- If the person refuses to wear a face covering and refuses to leave, security or MPD personnel may assist UI employees in removing the person.
- If the issue becomes large enough and a class is involved, the class where the person refused to wear a face covering could be dismissed.
Employee-specific concerns
- The UI registrar’s office will send lists of students ineligible to enter classrooms to faculty members on Aug. 24. Students will be notified on an individual basis if they are ineligible to enter classrooms.
- This data will be available on Banner. Those who do not know how to access this program can find out how in this training guide.
- Updated lists of ineligible students will be sent daily from Aug. 24 until the initial round of testing is completed, Vieux said. Further updates will be sent as needed, although they may not be daily.
- Students ineligible to enter classrooms could be positive for COVID-19, could have not received results from a COVID-19 test yet, could have not been tested for COVID-19 or could have other holds which make them ineligible to enter classrooms. Vieux said instructors should not automatically assume all students ineligible to enter classrooms have COVID-19.
- Faculty will not be required to create or enforce seating charts for in-person classes, although this is recommended as it could make contact tracing easier.
- A recently released survey conducted by the UI Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA), which interviewed 183 graduate students, showed concerns related to in-person classes. Graduate Teaching Assistant Scott Dorsch shared the survey during the meeting.
- The survey description stated “GPSA wants to assess the impact the current pandemic has on our students to ensure our voices are heard as the administration is developing guidelines to return to campus.” Dorsch is not yet sure how the data will be used.
- The survey began July 25. The data shared below is accurate as of Aug. 3, although the survey is still active. The following data points are from the document explaining the survey shared by Dorsch to those who asked for a copy.
- About 78.69% of those surveyed are worried about contracting COVID-19 on campus and spreading it to their loved ones.
- 68.85% do not trust Moscow community members to adhere to preventative measures. 69.95% are either somewhat not confident or extremely not confident that UI students and employees will adhere to social distancing guidelines and 55.19% feel the same way about UI students and employees adhering to face covering mandates.
- About 67.21% of those surveyed do not feel comfortable attending in-person classes with UI’s proposed guidelines and 56.28% would prefer taking classes outside.
- About 71.67% of those who the question applied to did not feel comfortable providing in-person classes with UI’s proposed guidelines and 53.39% would prefer teaching classes outside.
- About 61.54% of people surveyed did not feel at risk of losing their assistantships if they requested to teach virtually only, but 71.22% of those the question applied to would prefer not to be in an enclosed environment on campus if doing so would not risk losing their assistantship.
- Dorsch went through the process employees were expected to go through to request to teach remotely, but his request was denied.
- Teaching Assistants (TAs) can reach out to their supervisors and relevant deans to discuss the possibility of teaching remotely, but if no agreement can be reached, TAs are also allowed to leave their assistantship, Eckles said.
- “Nobody is going to come take you from your home and drag you into the classroom, right? That is a choice, absolutely,” Lawrence said. “It was a choice pre-COVID, too. I hope that isn’t the choice, I hope we can work out something that might help you feel more comfortable, but that’s hard to say.”
- According to Lawrence, the Strategic Enrollment Management team has reported students wanting to switch into online classes and students wanting to switch into in-person classes, but most requested changes are to in-person classes.
Lex Miller can be reached at [email protected]