Oraida Rodriguez / Contributing Writer
In an initiative led by housing and residential life, FIU students who live on-campus are being offered COVID-19 testing and a chance to win $1,000 off their spring 2021 housing.
However, it is not mandatory and those selected can opt-out.
Andrew Naylor, senior director for housing and residential life, has sent emails to students living on-campus to be tested for COVID-19 in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus.
“We will be inviting a random group of students living in FIU Housing to be tested as part of an early warning system to help identify any potential outbreaks of COVID-19 within FIU Housing,” stated the email sent by Naylor.
FIU’s testing site is located at the Modesto Maidique Campus (MMC), underneath the Parkview overhang. Testing for housing students will be done every Tuesday during the month of November.
According to Naylor, the housing staff has sent out hundreds of emails to students and 150 housing residents have been tested so far. The university expects students to participate in testing during the next upcoming weeks.
“Our goal is to test five percent of all housing students each week. And the other goal is to identify any potential outbreaks early so that we can contain spread on our campus,” said Naylor.
As the virus spreads quickly, FIU staff works to maintain sanitary rules, following social distancing guidelines and wearing masks on campus.
In a New York Times survey involving more than 1,700 American colleges and universities, more than 214,000 positive cases were reported on college campuses, out of which, 181 cases were reported at FIU.
Miranda Campoo, a junior majoring in psychology, who currently lives at the University Apartments dorm, supports the incentivization of the random COVID-19 test. She has already taken the test herself at the MMC campus, underneath the Parkview overhang.
“It’s really good that the university is asking students to take the test [on] campus,” said Campoo. “It’s accessible and you have an opportunity to win something if you do it. It’s voluntary, so we still have the choice which feels good.”
Students who test positive for COVID-19 are moved out of their dorms and into the University Apartments building. Sick housing residents will then be isolated alongside those that have been in close contact with them.
“They were going to use my building to house the infected. The member of the staff informed me that people who get infected are moved through to those locations,” said Campoo.
Students that are sick and moved to these isolated buildings are then tended to by housing staff.
“We do anything we can to make sure they’re cared for while they’re in those spaces,” said Naylor.
As of now, residents seem to be open to the idea of getting tested and keeping up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.
Derron Wright, a sophomore majoring in computer science, who currently lives at Lakeview South supports the idea of students randomly getting tested.
“… I would’ve still taken the test, even if it wasn’t incentivized because I always wanted to know if I had it; I never had symptoms but being asymptomatic is technically worse because now you believe that you’re safe for people to be around,” said Wright.
Wright also believes that the university, as well as its students, are handling the health precautions and testing well.
“I’m just extremely surprised how like FIU and the students at FIU are so good when it comes to following the rules,” said Wright. “I haven’t seen anyone breaking the rules here, everyone wants to stay inside and we will try to social distance from people we don’t live with already.”
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