The University of Vermont is holding fast to its reopening plan amid growing concern from Burlington city leaders and residents.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger issued a letter last week detailing a list of requested changes to UVM’s plan. The mayor has doubts about the enforcement of public health measures and plans to isolate students who test positive.
UVM President Suresh Garimella said in a letter to Weinberger on Monday that he is “confident UVM is doing its part” to keep Burlington safe, and declined to make any changes to the reopening plan.
Weinberger also questioned several logistical components of the university’s testing strategy. He called on the school to impose stricter penalties on students who miss a test, to “review the decision” to test students once per week instead of the twice-weekly screening that was previously promised and to release testing results daily instead of weekly. Weinberger also asked that the university lay out a contingency plan for if testing results should be delayed.
The school expects to conduct between 11,000-12,000 tests per week.
“I urge you to view our Safe Return to Campus plan and related efforts not as a collection of discrete items, but as a comprehensive strategy that is the result of months of research and planning,” Garimella wrote. “This strategy reflects the guidance of our Governor, our public health experts, and the CDC, as well the many conversations our team has had with you, your office and your constituents.”
Students living on campus who need to quarantine prior to the start of the school year will begin returning to Burlington on Friday. Many students living off campus have been in town for months.
The school plans to test every student weekly once they are on campus through a partnership with the Broad Institute, a nonprofit affiliated with Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that says it will have results back within approximately 24 hours.
Pre-arrival tests will be conducted via a partnership with Vault Health, a company that specializes in boosting male testosterone that also produces Covid-19 saliva tests.
The school plans to test students weekly and then reevaluate testing frequency after the third week in September. Public health and infectious disease experts told VTDigger last week the plan is sound.
“Our COVID-19 testing protocol is more aggressive than any college in the state of Vermont, and one of the most aggressive in the entire nation,” Garimella wrote.
Garimella said the school’s testing protocols “have already proven successful.” Of the 1,157 tests the school has conducted on off-campus students who have moved in over the summer, just five tested positive between June 8 and July 31.
“The total students tested from mid-March through July was 1319, and those testing positive was 1%, with no spread,” Garimella wrote.
Two members of the UVM basketball program tested positive last week, forcing the men’s and women’s teams to halt training.
In an op-ed in Inside Higher Ed on Monday, Garimella lauded UVM’s testing plan as being one of the nation’s best. Most other institutions’ plans, he wrote, are “woefully inadequate, the experts say, making moot the many other costly precautions they are putting in place.”
UVM, though, has “put in place the kind of testing protocols that stand a good chance of keeping the coronavirus at bay,” he said.
The mayor’s complaints stand in stark contrast to state officials, who have expressed confidence in UVM’s plan. In a press conference on Friday, Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said the state has had “extensive consultations” with universities.
“I think they’re kind of poised to do the right thing, at this point in time,” Levine said of UVM. “We’re going to find out very quickly how this initial period goes.”
Levine previously served as a professor and an associate dean for graduate medical education at UVM.
Weinberger expressed concern about how off-campus students could spread the virus. He wrote last week that he does “not understand” why UVM has not made the beds it has reserved on campus for isolation available to off-campus students. The school plans to have 5% of its on-campus beds available for students living on campus who need to isolate, according to its July 7 return to campus plan.
In response, Garimella said the school “has developed rigorous quarantine and isolation protocols.”
“Students will receive simple, direct, and comprehensive instructions,” he wrote. “These will include specific details regarding how to safely and effectively quarantine or isolate when in a shared house or apartment, much like a family who has a member of the household who must quarantine or isolate. These students will receive daily check-ins to monitor their status and reinforce quarantine and isolation restrictions, and reminders that they will be suspended if these regulations are not strictly followed.”
He added that the school will provide alternative isolation spaces in partnership with the Health Department for students who can’t quarantine or isolate well.
Weinberger also requested that the school “outline more clear standards that students who live off campus will be required to meet, inclusive of information about how you will monitor and enforce these standards.”
There has been significant concern among community members regarding compliance of off-campus students. A petition has been circulating that calls on the university to invite back fewer out-of-state students.
“Unlike students who reside on campus, students who reside off campus as residents of the City are not under the direct supervision of the University while they are off campus,” Garimella wrote. “That said, we are committed to enforcing COVID-19 regulations and protocols for all UVM students. We have been working in neighborhoods all spring and summer to educate students on their community impacts and responsibilities.”
In an emailed statement to VTDigger, Weinberger wrote that he is “evaluating” Garimella’s response.
“While I note some progress and welcome clarification, I continue to have concerns, especially with respect to off campus gatherings,” he wrote. “We expect to have further conversations with UVM and the State in the coming days.”
