By Cassidey Kavathas, Staff Writer
Random student testing has begun alongside random employee testing to track the community spread of COVID-19 at St. Bonaventure University.
Random student testing began the week of Sept. 16. while random employee testing began the week of Sept 21. Employee testing follows the same protocol as student testing, but employees must go off-campus to the Cattaraugus County Health Department or WellNow Urgent Care to receive their test while students are being tested through the university at the Center of Student Wellness. Commuting students are also being tested, as they are included in the student database which is used to randomly pick students.
“They are very much part of the testing pool since they too can potentially bring the virus to campus from the community every bit as much as someone leaving campus to go to the grocery store could bring it back,” said Christopher Anderson, the director for the Center for Student Wellness.
Testing has continued over these past few weeks, with no plans to stop. According to the university’s website, 1,149 tests have been administered by the university at the Center for Student Wellness. 531 of those tests were the PCR test, which is the typical test for COVID-19 and 618 were point-of-care or rapid tests. Five of the tests that were administered by the university came back positive as of Oct 7.
Ryan Connolly, a freshman undeclared major, was randomly chosen twice to get tested.
“The last one was two weeks ago and the first one was within three weeks since I got on campus,” said Connolly.
Students who have been randomly chosen will be alerted through email. All Bonaventure students agreed to participate in testing, screening and contact tracing under the Fall 2020 Community Compact.
The student who is selected will receive their appointment’s date and time via email. They will also be urged to fill out a “Request for Health Services Form” on the student portal before arriving at the Wellness Center.
“I got an email the day before [from the university that] told me to go to the Center for Student Wellness and that my time was 11 o’clock and I just showed up,” said Alberto Calderon, a sophomore political science major.
Although times are also randomly assigned, scheduling conflicts with classes or other extracurriculars are bound to happen.
“I was tested Sept. 22, I remember because I had a math class at the same time, I had to leave early to get to my appointment,” said Johanna Hogan, a freshman psychology major.
Anderson urges students to go to the center on the date and time they were scheduled.
“Since the testing is mandated and truly what is going to help us remain open, we need full cooperation by the students. So far, most are doing a very good job in complying. But we need everyone to see the team effort which is required in doing this,” said Anderson.
The appointments are often quick, ranging from 10 to 15 minutes.
“It took less than ten minutes, I walked in and told them what I was there for, they sat me down and took out the swab and did like ten seconds each side [nostril],” said Olivia Boyd, a senior criminology major.
Among the students interviewed there has been little fear in getting tested.
“I wasn’t really scared, I have gotten the test before,” Boyd said.
Calderon had the same feeling as Boyd.
“I got tested over the summer before we got here… it doesn’t hurt, it’s uncomfortable, I knew it was going to be fine,” he said.
The only fear was with the unknown – potentially testing positive while being asymptomatic.
“I was like ‘oh god, what if somehow I got it but I didn’t have symptoms, I was feeling good.’ I wasn’t around anyone who had any symptoms, obviously there was always that small chance I was asymptomatic, but thank goodness I wasn’t,” said Boyd.
Though the way results have been distributed to students varied, Boyd, who was given a rapid test, was told if she hadn’t received a call from the wellness center in 15 minutes she had tested negative, while Connolly was emailed his results within two days.
“It was weird, I never got my test results back, I think that only if you were positive you were notified… I guess I was negative,” said Calderon.
Hogan had a similar situation to Boyd.
“They said if you don’t get a call then you’re negative, so I never got a call,” said Hogan.
The university stated that they are doing the most to keep the community safe and healthy.
“[Random student testing] is helping the Bonaventure community because it’s testing people from all different friend groups which allows for better and more accurate results,” said Calderon.
kavathcj20@bonaventure.edu
