With less than a week until Georgia State University plans to reopen its campus for the fall semester, the university reports approximately 107 cases of COVID-19 among its students and employees since closing campus in mid-March.
The number of cases, obtained through an open records request is based on voluntary reports from students and employees between March 19 and Aug. 14. However, some details remain unclear.
Georgia State cannot provide information on how the number of cases is divided among students and employees. The university also did not offer the dates that the voluntary reports were made, despite PRN’s several attempts.
The number of cases comes as Georgia reached 241,677 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Aug. 18, according to the state Department of Public Health.
In a survey by the New York Times on July 29, Georgia State reported 18 positive cases of COVID-19. As noted by The Times, the figure only accounted for cases within the athletic department.
The cases reported in the survey were as of July 13 and included 14 student-athletes and four staff members testing positive, according to a records request. It is also the result of 481 tests for student-athletes and 100 tests for athletic staff members.
Mark Becker, president of Georgia State, announced a program that focuses on testing, reporting and tracing COVID-19 across the university community in a university update on Aug. 11.
The university plans to assist the Georgia Department of Public Health and Georgia’s county health departments in contact tracing through the cases in its reporting system, President Becker said.
“Teams of Georgia State faculty, staff and students are being trained in case investigation and contact tracing,” the university’s “Georgia State Ahead” page said.
The Reopening Plan
Georgia State moved instruction online on March 16, after abruptly removing students from university housing and announcing a two-week class suspension.
Since then, students returned to university housing for the upcoming year, and Georgia State announced a reopening plan. President Becker said the plan focuses on “maximizing safety and educational outcomes,” in a virtual town hall on Aug. 13.
The university has adopted three learning models. 50% of courses are online, “slightly over” 40% of courses are blended and the remaining 9% are face to face, President Becker said.
The university president also said the “collaborative plan” was created by medical and public health experts, faculty, staff and administrators.
The reopening plan has garnered criticism since the announcement.
The Student Government Association published a letter to the university administration on Aug. 18 requesting a full transition to online instruction for the fall semester, along with student fee refunds. The letter also included alternatives if the request was “not suitable.”
“As scholars, we must heed the advice from the scientific community or risk succumbing to the pitfalls that have afflicted other schools in this state,” the letter said. “We do not wish to be the epicenter of the next outbreak due to uncompromising inaction.”
On Aug. 17, the United Campus Workers of Georgia organized a “die-in” demonstration outside President Becker’s office at Centennial Hall.
The group protested the reopening plans and made demands, including an option for students and workers to return to campus, an end to layoffs and furloughs for university workers, hazard pay for front-line workers, free COVID-19 testing and “robust” contact tracing.
The university has provided face shields for instructors and enforced a face mask requirement for those on-campus. The university also began offering students two free reusable masks retrievable from the Atlanta Campus Student Center East information desk.
The Process
PRN sent its first open records request on Aug. 14, asking for a “database of the number of COVID-19 cases reported to Georgia State University up until today (August 4, 2020).”
The response to the request was, “Georgia State University has no documents/database responsive to your request.”
Within the next week, President Becker announced the university has been receiving voluntary reports to the university.
“For the last several months, we have encouraged members of our university community who tested positive for COVID-19 or exhibited symptoms to voluntarily report their status to the university,” President Becker said in the update. “We used that information where possible to notify anyone who may have been exposed to the virus while working at the university.”
After presenting this information, PRN was told the information could not be given because it is not kept to maintain the confidentiality of those who report.
“The information provided by individuals who voluntarily report their status to the university is not maintained in a de-identified manner and, therefore cannot be provided,” the response said.
PRN was provided the information after a follow-up email.
Note: PRN has reached out to the Student Health Clinic and the University’s campus public relations officer for comment but has not received a response in time for this report. We will update this story if more information is released. This article was written for PRN, the student-led news station at Georgia State University.
