Penn State Faculty Senate passes resolution centered on more COVID-19 testing, transparency
Penn State’s Faculty Senate, which represents faculty across all campuses, passed a resolution Thursday afternoon that calls on the university to increase COVID-19 testing, to increase transparency — and to require pre-arrival testing for all university employees and students prior to the start of the spring semester.
The resolution, authored by former Senate Chair Jim Strauss, was originally brought forth Sept. 29 but was tabled when faculty senators said they didn’t have enough time to review it. A petition then circulated for a special meeting that was conducted Thursday, where the resolution passed by a 91-37 vote.
“We are not here to point fingers or make accusations,” Strauss said during the online special meeting. ”Our goal is to establish a positive pathway forward for the greater administrative-faculty cooperation claim and information release.”
The requests in the resolution largely mirror demands made by a number of other Penn State groups. Coalition for a Just University and the American Association of University Professors — who boast the membership of some faculty senators — have consistently made those calls for action. The University Park Undergraduate Association also passed a resolution asking for more testing and transparency, while the Graduate & Professional Student Association and the Coalition of Graduate Employees have continually asked for a move to remote learning.
Neither the groups’ resolutions, nor their open letters, hold any true legislative power. But, because the university has acknowledged the importance of “shared governance,” the groups’ hope is such actions might sway the administration, or at least make their opinions known.
It was not immediately clear whether the university would follow the Faculty Senate’s recommendations, specifically universal pre-arrival testing prior to the spring semester. But, in a written statement, university President Eric Barron emphasized the common ground between the administration and the Faculty Senate — and said “nothing is off the table.”
“We are ready to adjust our testing strategy as circumstances change and have done so many times already with pop-ups and other new testing elements, including free, on-demand testing for employees at all our campuses,” Barron wrote. “We’re expanding our rapid-testing capability, too, with the TASC Lab at University Park, and expect CLIA certification for that lab soon.
“As we continue planning for the spring semester, we will be conducting pre-arrival testing. The testing strategy will be based on data, trends, conditions and expert guidance, and may be different from the pre-arrival testing we conducted before the fall semester, which focused on students coming from areas with a higher prevalence of the coronavirus. Nothing is off the table as we continue to follow the guidance of state and federal health and education agencies and the scientific recommendations of our own faculty experts in epidemiology, public health, medicine and more.”
In the fall, Penn State tested about 30,000 students, faculty and staff across all campuses as part of its pre-arrival process — which amounted to a little over 25% of the university population. Some faculty have expressed concern that limited testing allowed some asymptomatic students to slip through the cracks, which possibly or partially led to an outbreak on the University Park campus.
According to the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, there have been nearly 3,000 cases of the coronavirus among University Park students since Aug. 14.
Here is a more complete look at all of the requests of the administration in the Faculty Senate’s resolution:
- Release information regarding “The Predictive Nature” of Penn State’s COVID Modeling System, which should be accessible through the Penn State COVID-19 Dashboard.
- Release “contact tracing information,” specifically if there are clustering trends at on- or off-campus locations, or linked to specific events or gatherings.
- Release information about specific thresholds of COVID-19 caseload, random testing results, isolation facility occupancy or local hospital caseloads that might trigger a pause in face-to-face instruction or a move to remote learning.
- Make on-campus testing available to all Penn State faculty, staff and students at no cost.
- Significantly increase surveillance testing
- Require universal pre-arrival testing for all Penn State faculty, staff and students prior to the spring semester, again at no cost to the individual
- Remain in contact with the Faculty Senate regarding COVID-19 developments and involve the Faculty Senate in all aspects of the university’s COVID-19-related modeling, planning and implementation.
Strauss lauded several steps the university has already taken, such as eliminating spring break — which was initially among the group’s resolutions — in addition to increasing the number of testing centers available at University Park and making more testing available to faculty on commonwealth campuses.
The Faculty Senate’s next meeting will take place 1 p.m. Oct. 20.
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 5:10 PM.
