Doane Tigers,
As part of Doane’s efforts to provide a safe learning environment, the university will be providing saliva-based PCR testing to residential Crete campus students, free of charge, upon their return to campus in January. This test is required for all students living on campus and student-athletes on and off-campus.
On campus, return to campus baseline testing is a tool that will allow Student Health Services to quickly isolate students arriving to campus with COVID-19. This strategy will allow the Doane Community to start the spring semester off with our best foot forward. Saliva-based testing is highly effective and minimally invasive as it allows students to collect the sample on their own. Students will simply provide a saliva sample in a specialized collection tube upon check-in and then all collection tubes will be mailed to a lab for processing.
While the PCR test is not required for students living off-campus who do not participate in athletics, those students are highly encouraged to take advantage of this free testing opportunity as they return.
Testing will be conducted on January 12th, 16th, and 17th. Both on-campus and off-campus students will receive more information from Residence Life and Education soon about the move-in process and testing sign up.
Every student testing is required to set up an online portal to register for testing. Individual test results will be uploaded to student portals and also visible to authorized Student Health Services and contact tracing personnel.
Test results are expected to come back within 2-4 days, although that timeframe could vary. With all residential students receiving a COVID-19 test as they return to campus, based on guidance from public health experts and local health officials, all residential students will be quarantined from January 18-22. All instruction for the first week of the semester will be virtual.
Having all students quarantined for five days while they await their test results will eliminate the possibility of students who have tested positive exposing themselves to others in the community, prior to knowing their positive test result. This will greatly benefit contract tracing efforts and positions our students, faculty, and staff to begin the spring semester in the safest learning environment possible.
Students who are required to test and fail to comply will go through the Judicial Affairs process and be subject to disciplinary action. Testing exemptions will be made for students who have tested positive in the 90 days prior to January 18th.
If you have symptoms of COVID-19 before returning to campus, it is highly encouraged that you stay home and seek testing in your home community to minimize the amount of positive cases on campus.
Below is a list of testing resources by state that you may find helpful:
In-state, Nebraska Students:
https://www.testnebraska.com/en
https://www.douglascountyhealth.com/109-dchd/home/covid-19/773-where-to-get-tested
Out-of-State Student Resource List:
https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/community-based-testing-sites/index.html#al
For additional help navigating your local testing options, please contact [email protected] or your local health department. For any questions about on-campus COVID-19 testing in January, please contact Rachel Czerny, Director of COVID-19 Operations, at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Dr. Jacque Carter
President