Students Plan Rally, Sit-In Saturday To Urge UGA To Do More To Contain COVID-19
Students at the University of Georgia plan to hold a rally Saturday to urge the school to improve its efforts to contain COVID-19. They also held a two-day sit-in this week to get administrators’ attention. The group wants UGA to release Covid numbers daily, increase testing capacity, and enforce existing rules.
UGA has said it increased testing capacity for those not showing symptoms from 360 per weekday to 450.
“To expand our testing, we are now adding randomized cohorts to the pool,” Garth Russo, executive director of the University Health Center and chair of UGA’s Medical Oversight Task Force said in a news release. “This means we are inviting students in specific student populations to come and be tested.”
But some students, including sophomore Riley Grube, say the university could still do better. She had a hard time getting tested on campus recently.
“I knew someone who had tested positive,” she says. “It had been a while since I’d seen them — almost two weeks — but I still just wanted to sign up for a test just to make sure, but it was backed up for over a week. So I had to go off campus.”
Grube says she plans to attend the rally on Saturday.
“[UGA] definitely need[s] to ramp up the testing probably even more than they are planning on doing right now,” she says. “I think Georgia Tech is doing 1000 tests a day, whereas we’re now doing 450.”
Georgia Tech has reported processing more than 2000 tests some days. Other research universities, such as Georgia State and Kennesaw State, have been reporting cases weekly.
Hundreds of professors and students have signed an open letter asking the University System of Georgia to switch to remote learning for now. The move was prompted by a spike in COVID-19 cases in a county near Georgia Southern University’s Statesboro campus.
At a Board of Regents meeting this week, USG Chancellor Steve Wrigley said shifting to an online-only model isn’t likely.
“We believe strongly in on-campus instruction, the richness it adds to education, and the total student experience,” Wrigley said. “We will, therefore, stay the course with your support.”
Wrigley said most COVID-19 cases at colleges seem to be the result of off-campus activities.
The University of Georgia reported more 821 COVID-19 cases during the first full week of classes. It says positive cases fell about 70% the following week.
“While this [new] report indicates some positive and encouraging trends, COVID-19 remains a serious public health issue for our community, and we must not lose sight of that fact,” UGA President Jere Morehead said in a statement. “I know that it sounds repetitious, but everyone must remain focused on making sound decisions each day.”
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