Will Laegreid, the director of the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory and overseer of the COVID-19 testing for UW, said that only the students visiting campus will be required to take the weekly testing.
“Testing is only required to be on campus. If they’re fully online and aren’t coming on campus to use the library or the half acre,” Laegreid said.
If students only have classes online yet want to get tested, they are welcome to do so Laegreid said.
“To be honest I kind of like the testing in the union because it was convenient but it’s fine, I’m happy to test twice a week on campus,” said Declan Emmons, a physics major. “I thought it was fine, the only thing that was annoying was that it was all the way across campus from anything nearby in Crane-Hill Hall but other than that it was fine.”
Laegreid said at this time phasing out testing is dependent on the course of COVID-19 in the future.
“I’m hoping it’s soon,” he said. “My hope is we aren’t testing in the fall.”
Currently masks cannot be phased out even for people who have received the vaccine for COVID-19.
“The reason is the vaccine does a good job protecting against the vaccine but it isn’t 100%,” Laegreid said..
Shannon Fassler is a double major in English and art history. She is among students who are leaving Laramie after spring break.
“It’s a bit tedious to have to test twice a week, but it gave me peace of mind and was one of the few truly concrete ways I felt the university cared about and tried to ensure students’ health and safety,” Fassler said. “Besides, I didn’t have to pay anything extra for it directly, so I’m not about to complain. It was frustrating to hear that people had been turning in empty or tainted tubes.”
Fassler said their sister attends the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and has reported not taking weekly tests as students at UW do.
Classes were recently declared to have the ability to be in person. Fassler said she had concerns with her prior plans to leave Laramie when classes were to be online.
“I was slightly concerned that I would be the only one on Zoom in my last class, but the professor decided to switch online afterall. I can say that I’ve heard from multiple classmates and professors that they were annoyed by the last-minute announcement that classes could remain in-person. Even though it’s nice to be in person, what we need right now is a consistent plan.
“There is a question of returning for finals so I would have an isolated study environment, but I doubt that will happen because it’s inconvenient and expensive to travel for that purpose,” Fassler said.
Other students did not experience similar disrupted plans with the change to classes after spring break.
“I’m honestly fine with [campus remaining open]. I had to shift some plans around and I’m glad that people who like in person classes have the opportunity to stay in person,” Emmons said.
