Chapman University significantly reduces COVID-19 policies

The low-risk category of Orange County, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) standards, means a new and updated wave of COVID-19 policies for Chapman University, including no more clearance officers, little information available on the COVID-19 task force and no more updates on the testing that is being performed on the Chapman community. Photo illustration by MADDIE MANTOOTH, Photo Editor.

Broken links, a vacant COVID-19 dashboard and halted testing updates greeted the Chapman community April 4 with last week’s email announcement from Dean of Students Jerry Price. 

Though Chapman has supplied numbers of the campus’ ongoing positive COVID-19 cases since the early days of the pandemic, the same day as Price’s announcement, this information was removed from the dashboard along with details about the university’s COVID-19 task force. 

Now, if you Google “Chapman University COVID-19 task force,” most of the links will lead to a 404 error on the CU Safely Back page.

“(Chapman’s COVID-19 task force) used to have 30 people, and now it (has) about 10,” Harold Hewitt, Chapman’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, told The Panther. “But we are still actively meeting, because we are watching very closely evidence concerning what is known as the (new) strain (COVID-19 BA.2)”

Chapman’s COVID-19 dashboard still contains up-to-date vaccination information of the percentage of the university community who have received both the regular vaccine series and the booster, respectively. Similarly, an April 1 CU Safely Back announcement clarifies the COVID-19 task force will remain on call should local health conditions escalate.

The changes in protocol corresponded with the removal of COVID-19 clearance officers from the doors of Leatherby Libraries, Argyros Forum, Beckman Hall and Marion Knott Studios on March 28th.

“With the very low rate of transmission and the very high rate of vaccination among all campus members, we thought it’d be great while it was practical, possible and without danger to reduce the number of COVID-related barriers” said Hewitt, who has functioned as the principal organizer of the COVID-19 task force since March 2020. “So long as no one’s health is jeopardized and we can reduce those hoops that people have to jump through, the task force decided to recommend doing that.”

In addition to no longer displaying positive case rates, Chapman’s COVID-19 dashboard also ceased to provide testing information for students, faculty and staff. Price rationalized the decision by clarifying that the university has restricted testing to symptomatic individuals. longer display testing information in the COVID-19 dashboard or the number of positive cases on Dean Jerry Price’s weekly emails.

“Now that Orange County is in the Low category as designated by the CDC, we are only conducting COVID testing for persons who are symptomatic,” Price wrote in his April 4 email. “As a result, we feel reporting our current testing numbers and results is no longer helpful. If Orange County moves to a Medium or High CDC level and we increase our testing, we will resume reporting the results at that time.”

According to Hewitt, the COVID-19 task force decided to no longer display the results of testing out of concern that people might be misled by the information. This is because of the higher positivity rate that Chapman has experienced in recent weeks in contrast to previous months — which doesn’t necessarily mean that there are more positive results but that a higher percentage of results are positive.

Hewitt explained that in the week of Jan. 10 to Jan. 14, 3,713 people were tested for COVID-19, and out of those, 193 tested positive, giving a test positivity rate of 5.19%. In the week of March 28 to April 6, only 471 people were tested at the Health Center, out of which 20 were positive, creating a higher positivity rate of 8.49%.

Only people who are symptomatic or who have been exposed to COVID-19 are required to get tested, so the positive results come from a smaller population of test-takers. Because of this, the positivity rate is higher, but there are overall less positive cases.

The COVID-19 task force implemented the changes in alignment with the recommendations of local health authorities and the CDC’s designation of Orange County as “low risk.” The county will remain in the “low risk” category as long as there are fewer than 200 cases per 100,000 people maintained over seven days.

“If BA-2 constitutes a wave and Orange County enters the CDC (‘medium’) tier, then we’re going to go back to having unvaccinated people tested once a week, and we will have additional requirements for testing,” said Hewitt. “If we get that many people testing, we will once again be publishing all the numbers.” 

In spite of the “low” classification of Orange County and the small number of active cases, some students don’t agree with the change in policies. One group of students launched a petition April 3 prompting Chapman to reinstate the option for students to have hybrid classes, provide COVID-19 tests for any student who requests one and reinstate the COVID-19 clearance officers.

“I think (a hybrid option for classes) should be available for students, especially after the school lifted the mask mandate,” said Mille Munoz, a freshman animation major who signed the petition. “I feel like it should be an option if people aren’t comfortable with people not wearing a mask. I think allowing a hybrid option is beneficial for everyone, not just students. Even if we weren’t in a pandemic, I think it would be a good step for students to still be active in class if they just couldn’t come.”

The petition ‘Implement Hybrid Access at Chapman’ can be found in change.org, and asks Chapman to allow for equal access to education for everyone. The petition highlights the recent changes of COVID-19 policy and asks the school to allow students to have the option to have class online if they feel unsafe in their classrooms.

“This effort has been important since classes have resumed in-person, but we are pushing for it now in response to the lifted mask mandate and reduced testing.”, said a spokes person for the group of students who started the petition in an interview with The Panther.  “We also want to raise awareness that the need for hybrid doesn’t expire when COVID-19 “ends;” an online class option still benefits students with health conditions that stop them from being able to attend class every day.”

The petition also asks that Chapman that the COVID clearance officers be reinstated, as the organizers feel like the absence of anyone checking the daily clearances allows for any student who is actively infected with COVID could enter campus with and put other students at risk of exposure. Additionally, the petition asks for the numbers of active cases in Chapman to be shared again for transparency and to make every student feel safer going to their classes. 

“We disagree with the removal of access to any data as it prevents transparency”, said the spokes person for the petitioners. “While the positivity rate may look higher than it is, we still don’t understand why Chapman needs to withhold the number of known active cases because that data itself is accurate. Additionally, if Chapman simply offered more testing for asymptomatic and vaccinated students again, like we are calling for, their positivity rates would be more accurate again anyways.”

The authors explained that they started this petition because they feel unsafe on campus and believe other students do too, not only because if potential exposure to COVID-19, but also because they believe immunocompromised and disabled students are being left to the side by not having the option of hybrid classes offered to them, even as a disability service.