Marian University mandates self-assessment, not coronavirus testing
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Monday was the first day back for students at Marian University, one of the few colleges in the area to not mandate testing for everyone before they come to campus.
They’re relying on an app on their cellphones and a requirement to answer three questions every 24 hours if they want to be on campus.
Administrators said they don’t believe a campuswide testing requirement is worth it.
Time was ticking for Kayla Fisher on Monday afternoon. Fisher, a senior communications major, had a green badge after taking the self-assessment. But by Tuesday morning, she’ll need to pass a self-assessment again to come back on campus.
“I don’t believe in my heart that people would lie or be dishonest to come to class when they’ve given us every opportunity to be honest,” Fisher said.
Hannah Robinson, a senior marketing and psychology major, agrees. With a mother who is high-risk for the disease, she’s taking every precaution she can.
She said she feels safe on campus.
“I do, yes,” Robinson said. “I put all my trust in Marian.”
Marian University President Daniel Elsener hopes no pivot to fully online instruction will be needed this year.
There’s record enrollment this fall with 3,500 students on campus or online.
As of Monday afternoon, in the last 24 hours, Elsener said there’s been 2,700 self-assessments done without a single red badge. He believes that’s because anyone who wouldn’t get a green stops before the end and reaches out for help.
“They’d call right away to the health center,” Elsener said.
Unlike most universities in Indiana, Marian did not require all students and staff to get tested for coronavirus before returning to campus.
Elsener said that’s by design after discussing the pandemic with the university’s med school faculty.
“Testing everybody seems to clog up the system and doesn’t tell you a lot,” Elsener said.
He explained that’s because it’s only a snapshot of a moment in time, it doesn’t mean a student can’t get the virus a week or even a day later. Plus, so much of campus is healthy 19- or 20-somethings.
So there’s just been targeted testing of several populations like athletes at Marian.
“We’d rather test when there’s some need to,” Elsener said. “You were around someone or you possibly feel badly. We think that targeted approach is really more relevant and it also doesn’t clog up the system with just a lot of tests with very healthy young people that just don’t to be tested.”
The reminder signs are all over campus and the daily app.
“When we get out of this, I think when we don’t have to do it anymore, that will be the weird thing,” Fisher said.
“Because it is such a small campus and we know each other so well, I trust a lot of my peers,” Robinson said.
While answering the same trio of questions for the foreseeable future seems like the new routine, Fisher is confident it won’t become routine.
“It is so prominent in our lives, you can’t forget about it.” Fisher said. “If I ever felt sick, I would do my part to keep others safe.”
The University of Indianapolis is the only other university in central Indiana taking a similar approach and not testing everyone before they return to campus.