September 15, 2020
Dear SDSU Community,
We have made COVID-19 testing available for all enrolled students since August 11,
and we have been very pleased by the high percentage of students who have voluntarily
sought regular testing. We have also expanded access to testing for students at multiple
sites, and for our faculty and staff, through a partnership with the San Diego Health
and Human Services Agency (HHSA).
As part of the next step in our health and safety efforts, and in partnership with
HHSA, we have developed a plan to COVID-19 test all students living on campus through
a new sustained random testing initiative: SDSU’s COVID-19 Surveillance Testing Plan.
With this plan, we will expand our already robust testing options. All students who live in SDSU on-campus housing will be required to get COVID-19 tested,
with limited exceptions. Surveillance testing is a common term and practice within public health, indicating
random testing within a population. While this model and plan centers on students
living on campus, we also continue to encourage all students who live off campus to
get tested, and the University maintains a number of testing locations with HHSA for
that testing to occur.
With this message, we explain the random testing model, which has been similarly
adopted recently by a number of universities nationally, and why we are implementing
this plan now.
On-Campus Student Resident Testing Expanding
As part of the next step in our health and safety efforts, SDSU in partnership with
HHSA will begin COVID-19 testing all students who live in campus housing. This enhanced
testing will begin starting tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept. 16, through Saturday, Sept.
19, and again on Monday, Sept. 21, with a target of SHS and HHSA collectively testing
about 500 students daily.
All students living in SDSU residence halls and apartments will be assigned testing
slots at either the Student Health Services Calpulli Center, or the HHSA testing location
at the Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center, 5250 55th St., located just west of Viejas
Arena. Students will be notified of their assigned testing window, along with instructions
on what to do, via email to their SDSU email address.
Testing is offered at no cost, and all students will be provided a $5 Starbucks voucher
when they show their SDSUcard. Ten students will also be randomly selected to receive
$100 gift cards to the SDSU Bookstore.
All students continue to have access to testing at Student Health Services and at
sites at both San Diego County and Imperial County locations. Faculty and staff continue
to have access to county testing site locations, including the location at the Parma
Payne Goodall Alumni Center.
Random Testing to be Implemented
Following the initial phase of benchmark testing for all students in residence this
week, we will then launch random testing for the on-campus housing population. During
each round of testing, a set of individuals from each residential community group
will be randomly sampled to be re-tested.
Periodic random testing of a representative sample of our students — specifically
those who are asymptomatic — is a proven method and best practice which will provide
critical information as we assess changes in the prevalence of COVID-19 within the
SDSU community. This type of testing will also help us to understand where we need
to take additional, quick action to reduce transmission.
Stay at Home Order and COVID-19 Advisory
This new testing model will help us to capture more granular detail about the virus
spread within the student population in which we have jurisdiction--our on-campus
students. If we have widespread participation in the plan, then we do not anticipate re-implementing
the Stay at Home Order and COVID-19 Advisory, which expired at 9 a.m. on Sept. 14. Each of those measures resulted in a significant
reduction in off-campus gatherings and an overall reduction in the number of reported
violations. Further, we have seen a significantly reduced rate of new cases impacting
our residential community following those orders. Surveillance testing, built upon
this foundation of good individual behavior, will help further ensure the risk of
infection remains low in on-campus housing.
While these Stay at Home orders and advisories have been lifted, we ask our students
to continue to follow the necessary public health measures to prevent the spread of
COVID-19, including not gathering with non-household members, wearing facial coverings,
maintaining physical distance, and practicing appropriate hygiene including handwashing.
In Closing
University researchers and experts in epidemiology from the SDSU School of Public
Health are working closely every day with county health officials. For their work,
we are deeply appreciative. We are closely monitoring the sensitivity, specificity
and availability of COVID-19 tests, as well as the prevalence of the virus both in
our student population and in the San Diego regional community.
While testing is important, reducing the spread will always come back to our everyday actions and changing our behaviors to protect ourselves and one another. Again, we thank our campus community for following
public health guidelines and university policies.
Adela de la Torre, Ph.D.
San Diego State University President
Hala Madanat, Ph.D.
Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation
J. Luke Wood, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs and Campus Diversity
Libby Skiles, Ed.D.
Student Health Services Director