On-campus employees had to present a negative COVID-19 test before starting their job, and must take an online health screening to obtain a pass to come to campus. On-campus students must do the same.
On Monday, Aug. 31, Cal Poly sent out a campus-wide email stating that students planning to live on or participate in any sort of activity on-campus must submit an initial negative COVID-19 test. The baseline testing was used to inform campus administration of how many students coming to campus had the virus or were asymptomatic.
“That baseline data is being used to inform a surveillance testing program under which all students coming to campus will be tested at least every two weeks throughout the quarter,” university spokesperson Matt Lazier wrote in an email to Mustang News.
Until the recent reopening, all the student staff for the university’s Recreation Center were furloughed until further notice. For kinesiology senior Abby McIntyre, working at the Recreation Center has looked different since it reopened at the start of the school year.
“It’s definitely weird just in that my job used to be a lot more interacting with people and now it by nature can’t be quite as much,” McIntyre said.
Along with taking the required self-screening test that shows they have access to campus, both Recreation Center student employees and full-time staff members have to get their temperatures taken once they arrive to work, according to McIntyre.
University Store student employees require a different routine to start their shifts. In addition to the general screening that students must take to enter campus, they must take an additional questionnaire through Follett, the company that runs the store, according to child development senior Megan O’Grady.
After the initial negative test result, both McIntyre and O’Grady said their managers have not informed the employees about having to get routine COVID-19 tests. Both employees said they will continue to get tested, just in case.