Last night, August 27, at 5:30 pm President Seidel, Mayor Joe Shumway, Albany County Public Health Officer Dr. Jean Allais and many other UW officials held a Virtual Town Hall for the Laramie community to hear about the fall return plan and ask questions that may impact the town.
Seidel opened the meeting with a welcome to the community and an overview of the return to campus plan and the phase in period.
Seidel said the university is a big part of the community. He does not want to “pose a health challenge to the community in having students return.” He then spoke on the importance of wearing a mask and washing hands to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 among campus or the community.
Vice Provost for Academic Personnel, Tami Benham-Deal, gave a short presentation on the return to campus plan, the phase in period and the testing that will be accomplished weekly throughout the semester.
Seidel said that they realized as other universities and institutions opened up around the country that UW was not prepared for all students, faculty and staff to return at once. The phase in period was made to hopefully keep UW as an exception to staying open and running unlike many other universities having to shut down due to COVID-19 outbreaks.
Students, faculty and staff are required to take a saliva test for COVID-19 before returning to campus and must complete a specific COVID-19 training. Currently all classes are online and only about 1,500 students have been welcomed back to campus in the first phase, said Benham-Deal. Starting September 7, about 3,500 students will be welcomed back and there will be limited in person aspects to campus.
During these two phases there will also be bridge testing, which is a weekly sampling program using the same saliva test through Vault Health as the pre return test, said Benham-Deal. This is required of all students, faculty and staff who are on campus and cannot socially distance.
By September 28 all students will have been welcomed back to campus and there will be some in person aspects to campus including classes. During this time there will be surveillance testing for all students and employees, said Benham-Deal. This will be a saliva test taken and analyzed on campus. All students, faculty and staff who are on campus will have to complete this test one to two times a week, said Benham-Deal.
Brant Shumaker, an epidemiologist and professor leading the post return testing, said there will be about 5,000 tests conducted a day on campus for the surveillance testing. He said it is important to keep up with this testing in order to stay ahead of a big outbreak of the virus that would shut down the school.
Seidel and everyone a part of the town hall answered questions from the public which were on the topics of bar regulations, quarantining and isolation, consequences of not following guidelines and much more.
Trustee Kermit Brown said the UW officials have worked diligently day and night to create this plan for the campus. He said he understands the impatience of the community but emphasises the want “to be one of the institutions standing come Thanksgiving.” He said he hopes this plan will make that possible.
