Worries on UCF campus over testing
Most students so far are negative, but some concerned about check frequency
Most students who moved onto UCF’s main campus last weekend tested negative for coronavirus, but faculty members still fear the university doesn’t plan to test them often enough and hasn’t specified a threshold such as the number of new virus cases that would necessitate a return to online-only courses.
The University of Central Florida’s reopening plan, approved by the state, calls for all students living in campus and Greek housing to take a COVID-19 test as they return for the fall semester, which starts Aug. 24. Of the 837 students who moved into rooms on Saturday and Sunday, 11 tested positive for the virus, the university said Wednesday. Residents have been receiving their results within the expected 48-hour window, the university said, and the testing will continue as more students arrive before classes begin.
But during a Board of Trustees committee meeting Wednesday, Faculty Senate Chair Joseph Harrington said many instructors were concerned the university’s reopening plans don’t require enough testing. UCF has developed a health screening app that asks users about symptoms and uses contact tracing to identify people who might have been exposed but does not plan to require widespread testing.
If people wait until they show symptoms before being tested, Harrington said, that could cause “a huge spike” in cases.
“We want to be able to identify an outbreak fast,” said Harrington, who also is
one of 13 trustees who oversee the University of Central Florida’s budget and operations.
Campus life will be quieter this fall than in previous years: About 70% of courses will remain onlineonly this semester and oncampus housing is still accepting applications, with about 88% of the nearly 8,000 beds filled. In past years, the dorms have been in such high demand that some students were turned away.
The virus apparently hasn’t discouraged students from enrolling in classes. The number of students who have signed up for fall classes is about 2% higher than it was this time last year. Enrollment also was up over the summer and the university collected $7.2 million more in tuition and fees than it did during the 2019 summer term, said Joseph Trubacz, the university’s interim chief financial officer.
“This provides a bit of a cushion going into the fall semester,” he told trustees on Wednesday.
In mid-March, UCF and the other state universities canceled in-person classes and urged students to return home, though some remained close by in off-campus apartments and homes. The university has recorded 430 students who have tested positive and in June, local health officials attributed an increase in cases in the area to young adults who gathered in bars and didn’t take social distancing guidelines seriously.
Some of the students who tested positive over the weekend returned home, while the university made arrangements for others to quarantine on campus.
“These students have our full support, as will all Knights who test positive for COVID-19,” read an email sent to students Wednesday.
As students return and in-person classes resume, Harrington said, some of his colleagues fear they’re at risk. Although he said faculty are generally happy with the university’s plans to clean facilities more frequently, some want the school to test people more often. If the university tests enough students and returns results within 48 hours, that should allow officials enough lead time to quash outbreaks quickly, he said. Harrington proposed asking university administrators to develop a set of criteria that will help them determine when and if they need to revert back to online-only classes.
“I think if we do that, we will teach more days of inperson instruction this semester than we otherwise would,” he said.
The public’s perspective on the severity of the pandemic has changed, he said, pointing out that if they had looked at the area’s current positivity rates a couple of months ago, they might not have deemed it safe to reopen the campus.
But other trustees said they didn’t think it was necessary.
“Welcome to healthcare — healthcare is a giant judgment call,” said trustee Ken Bradley, an administrator for AdventHealth, adding “And welcome to pandemics.”
Scott Cole, the university’s general counsel, said he doubted whether the trustees had the authority to direct administrators to close the campus under certain conditions.
“I think it would require some kind of approval from the Board of Governors,” he said, referring to the body that oversees the state university system. But Harrington said Chancellor Marshall Criser had told faculty members from the state universities recently that as long as they followed the general guidelines set forth by the Board of Governors, the leaders of those institutions could close their campuses. He said he also hadn’t heard any indication that those who decided to switch to online-only instruction would see a reduction in their state funding.
A Board of Governors spokeswoman didn’t respond to an email from the Orlando Sentinel about the matter on Wednesday.