The University of Idaho has been lagging behind other universities in the state when creating plans for COVID-19 and presenting test results. The lack of clear communication and transparency has led to result numbers being unclear and simply not up to par with other schools.
Boise State University has both the accumulative cases and new cases for their campus testing divided into demographics, while Idaho State University shows new cases weekly from each of its campuses in the state. The College of Idaho and Lewis-Clark State College have similar measures for presenting data, none being perfect, but all being preferable over UI’s.
The testing numbers that are being published show total positive tests for that week, with no indication if those include positive tests from prior weeks and how many students have recovered. Rather than clarify, they post disclaimers stating that the results posted do not represent the total number of swabs collected, the total number of unique individuals tested or the number of infectious cases.
We are left to assume what the disclaimers mean when compared to the published results, but that is the issue. There should be no assumptions on what data represents, especially when it comes to COVID-19.
President C. Scott Green ran on a platform of not only being a Vandal, but being an open door to the UI community, showing not just the final outcome, but the decisions leading to it.
The UI administration has shown time and time again that while they preach transparency, they don’t practice it. They demonstrated their lack of openness all summer when they did not clearly tell all students, faculty and staff about plans for Fall 2020. All we heard were vague hints.
Barely a month before the start of classes, on July 16, Green sent out a memo which stated “We will be delivering excellent in-person education beginning Aug. 24. It will look a bit different, of course, and will require flexibility and agility by each of us.”
This was the same memo that announced all classes after Thanksgiving Break would be online, along with the cancellation of winter commencement. Going through all of the president’s memos, this is not the first or last time he talked about something important so vaguely.
UI claims to be leading the way, being the host of brave and bold decisions, but all of these decisions are following the lead of other universities in similar situations, and rather poorly at that. If UI is going to be a follower, why is the administration not following the reporting model that everyone else is doing?
We want clarity and we want it before final decisions are being made, not after the storm hits us.
We aren’t saying everything UI is doing is bad. The fact we’re testing at all is a good thing, and there is not a university out there doing everything perfectly.
The reality is, no matter how much we prepared, a worldwide pandemic isn’t how we expected 2020 to go down. Nobody expected to be releasing the number of infected students or to suddenly have to learn how to teach on a video platform, and we’re still adjusting.
However, just because we’re doing something right does not mean we’re doing nothing wrong. There’s always something that can be improved, and the university should be making efforts to do the work to improve it.
Comprehensive and comparable testing numbers are important not only to journalists, but to the students, faculty, staff and community members in the Moscow area. UI can do better, and if we’re really going to call ourselves “brave and bold,” we need to strive to do better.
It is the university’s job to keep students, faculty, staff and community members informed. We must be doing this in the most precise and comprehensible way.
President Green ran with transparency in his platform. We must stop creating situations where people need to ask questions to understand what is being conveyed. COVID-19 testing must communicate current results in an orderly fashion which can be easily understood, not expecting others to assume what it actually represents.
Give the community clear accumulative records, positive and negative tests and results over time. The current system is not transparent and must be updated daily, or at least three times a week. [email protected] can only do so much.
-Editorial Board