DAYTON — A student is raising concerns as Wright State University moves forward with its randomized mandatory COVID-19 testing.
Each week on Friday, 275 students and employees get an email that tells them they need to get a COVID-19 test within a week. They can do so at a testing center in the student union or through another testing source.
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The goal of the required surveillance testing is to identify positive coronavirus cases. Chris Taylor, WSU’s Dean of Students, told News Center 7′s Molly Koweek that the randomized surveillance testing is an effort to prevent outbreaks and make sure someone is not unknowingly asymptomatic and spreading it to others.
In the two weeks that the university has been conducting randomized testing, Taylor said the school has identified one positive case.
A student who received an email, requiring her to get tested, told News Center 7 that she believes being subjected to testing is against her rights and called it an “invasion of privacy.”
In an email to News Center 7, Kimberly Towe, a graduate student at WSU, said the randomized testing “sounds more like research, and all research participants are to give their consent before participating in a research study. I do not consent to this study.”
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Towe noted in her email that the university’s testing email said those who did not get tested would be a referral to the Student Conduct Board.
WSU Student Body President, Jonathan Ciero, told News Center 7 that he has not heard much controversy regarding the testing.
“In terms of student opinion with [the testing], I think most students agree that we need to be doing something. We can’t just forget and act like it doesn’t exist,” Ciero said.
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