Members of the Student Senate asked Gillian Ice, special assistant to the president for public health operations, questions about the upcoming Spring Semester, COVID-19 testing capacity and the mental and educational effects of COVID-19 isolation dorms.
Ice began by talking about the recent decrease in COVID-19 cases. Moving forward, she would like to see more students go to testing centers at Ohio University rather than going to local urgent care because of the accuracy of test results.
Ice encouraged students to be safe during Halloween weekend and noted the university has been working with the city on enforcing and encouraging safe behavior on the weekend.
“The last thing we want to see is a huge spike in cases after Halloween that finishes the semester off poorly and has consequences for us moving forward,” she said.
Ice was first asked if OU has a long term plan to sustain over multiple semesters.
Ice said the university is always planning on the future while keeping constant communication with the Athens City-County Health Department. Ice has talked to the health department about how vaccines are going to be distributed amongst college kids, and said it could be well into 2021 before vaccines are available for the student-age population.
“We really do need that long term plan,” Ice said.
Ice also encouraged student leaders and Senate members to suggest ways of how to support students in quarantine and isolation.
When looking toward the future, Ice wants students who are living in residence halls during Spring Semester to be tested every week. Ice also requested testing every two weeks for students who have an on-campus presence, and employees.
“We want to get employees who are on our campus actively at least every two weeks with some higher rates of testing for people who are at higher risk,” Ice said.
Also at Senate, The Ohio University Student Senate appointed individuals to several positions throughout its Wednesday night meeting. The appointees include:
- Black Affairs Vice Commissioner: Imani Estrada
- LGBTQA+ Affairs Vice Commissioner: Quinn Humes
- Director of Social Media to the Executive Staff: Quang Ly
- International Affairs Vice Commissioner: John Wehrkamp
- Vice Commissioner of Operations to the Senate Appropriations Commission: Brogan Speraw
- Governmental Affairs Vice Commissioner: Molly Pennington
