There are 2 comments on COVID-19 Test Scheduling 101: Everything You Need to Know

1. This patronizing article, last week’s vague attempt at assuaging our doubts about reduced test capacity, and the accusatory tone of the email from the Dean of Students have frustrated me so much that I feel I must push back a little.

   Dean Elmore’s email opens with “The rumor that closing the Agganis test collection site has resulted in a net reduction of available slots for COVID-19 testing is not true.” While I’m glad that the test capacity will not decrease due to the consolidation of test sites, I am not happy about the insinuation that it is some sort of malicious rumor-spreading to assume, quite reasonably, after reading last week’s confusing announcement, that a reduction of available test sites means a reduction of testing capacity.

   In the announcement published on BU Today last week, when asked “what steps are being taken to ensure that other sites, like 808 Comm Ave, are able to handle the increased capacity”, the collection site operations director only answered that the canceling of the Kilachand Center site in July increased the number of the booths at 808 Comm Ave, and keeping the same number of staff on board. No mention was made of the number of appointments. No further question was asked about the number of appointments. Later in the article there was some confusing statement about slightly expanded hours. Combined with the stressful experience of not being able find appointments (although I must agree that booking far enough in advance is good advice), it is only natural that one would come to assume that reducing the number of test sites is a cost-cutting measure that will hurt the BU community.

   I am glad that the testing capacity will, after all, not decrease. I am also glad that the university eventually realized the need to convey that more clearly. I only hope that such a decision would be communicated more effectively, and that in the future, such failures of communication would not be blamed on the BU community.

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2. I am very concerned that the administration is not taking the concerns of students seriously when it comes to finding testing, a critical part of keeping the campus healthy, safe, and open. While there might technically be enough open slots, they are not necessarily at the right times. I am not stuck to an undergraduate schedule, but I have gone to get tested at different times. When it’s between undergraduate class times, the line is incredibly long and when it is in between class times, there really isn’t a line at all. This tells me that students are unable to get appointments at times that work for them and schedule during their classes, only to show up after and create the long line. There were three sites on the CRC campus when hardly anyone was here last year, one site is not enough for this full return to campus.

   808 is also not very accessible to students with walking disabilities. I was on crutches for the first few weeks of the semester and still need to be careful with my ankle, and the entrance was quite far from the crosswalk on the green line and the BU shuttle only stops near it in one direction. While on crutches I had to wait in one of those huge lines, standing, and then crutch through the maze that is the testing center. Agganis was slightly more accessible, but that is now closed. Accessibility of testing sites needs to be addressed!

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