BU will shut down most COVID-19 test sites on the Charles River Campus, including at the Kilachand Center, allowing faculty and staff to collect their test samples unobserved by Healthway personnel. Photo by Cydney Scott

University News

Faculty, Staff Will Transition to Unobserved COVID-19 Testing

Charles River Campus students and all Medical Campus students, faculty, staff to continue supervised testing

The COVID-19 tests for Charles River Campus (CRC) faculty and staff, currently self-administered under the watchful eyes of Healthway workers, will be done unobserved in a gradual transition beginning on July 19.

The new system will not apply to CRC students or Medical Campus faculty, staff, or students, who will continue doing observed tests. CRC employees and faculty with COVID-19 symptoms also will continue receiving observed tests at the site reserved for them at the Health Services Annex, behind Agganis Arena.

Asymptomatic CRC faculty and staff will be able to pick up their own test kits at four staffed kiosks. They can book an appointment online through Healthway, 30 days in advance, to return the kit, and book multiple appointments if they wish, to comply with BU’s testing requirement in any week that they spend at least some time on campus.

On the day they plan to return the kit, affiliates will swab themselves in their home, office, or some other private space on campus, and then turn in the sample at one of the kiosks. (Same-day return ensures the validity of the sample, which otherwise would degrade and be unreliable.) Kiosk staff will then give them a new kit for their next test. For an employee’s first drop-off test kit of the semester, they can visit any of the four drop-off kiosks to pick up their kit. No appointment is necessary to receive your first kit.

Employees returning samples must bring their Boston University ID.

Samples collected under both the observed and unobserved regimens are tested for COVID by the same laboratory, says Gloria Waters, BU vice president and associate provost for research. Aside from the kiosk tests being unsupervised, she says, “literally, everything about this is the same [as supervised tests].” 

The new system is being introduced as coronavirus numbers statewide dwindle dramatically, the pandemic continues to ease, and the campus repopulates with employees and students who’ve been working and studying remotely, Waters says. “As more people return to campus, we need to get back some of the space that we used this year for [test] collection sites,” she says, returning them to their regular University uses. The one observed-testing site that will remain open for CRC students, the 808 Gallery at 808 Commonwealth Ave., lacks the space to accommodate both the students and faculty and staff.

“It’s all about capacity,” she says.

Currently, asymptomatic CRC affiliates self-administer tests under the supervision of Healthway personnel at three sites. The rollout of unobserved tests will proceed on the following timeline:

• On July 19, the observed testing site at the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering will close. That day, the four kiosks will open, at 1019 Commonwealth Ave., 179 Amory St., One Silber Way, and the George Sherman Union, 775 Commonwealth Ave. 

• All CRC staff and faculty may choose unobserved testing at a convenient kiosk or continue using the remaining observed-testing sites: the 808 Gallery, the Agganis Arena Lobby at 925 Commonwealth Ave., and the Medical Campus.

• On August 2, all weekday observed tests for CRC staff and faculty will be discontinued, with supervised testing for those affiliates available weekends only, either at the 808 Gallery or at the Medical Campus site at 72 East Concord St.

• On September 24, the Agganis Arena Lobby will close, and all observed testing on the CRC will be done only at the 808 Gallery. That will remain the observed testing site for students.

Swabbing at the kiosks, as soon as a test kit is picked up, won’t be permitted, as a safety precaution to avoid people removing their masks indoors in proximity to kiosk staff, says Kevin Gonzales, collection site operations director. 

People who lose or damage their test kit can pick up a replacement at any kiosk without an appointment, but will still need to show their BU ID, Gonzales says. If the lab determines a sample is unusable, the University will notify the employee that they need to retest.

The requirement that faculty and staff take a COVID test during any week they’re on campus is to remain in place during the fall semester. “There will be unvaccinated people among us for medical or religious reasons,” Waters says. “We’re particularly wanting to be careful at the beginning of the semester as we bring in students from all over the world who have had varying types of vaccines.”

Visit the Back2BU website for more information on COVID-19 screening, testing, and contact tracing. Watch instructional videos about observed collection site testing and self-testing at the Boston University Healthway website.