An increase in dorm residents for the spring semester has several students concerned there isn’t enough routine COVID-19 testing for on-campus living.
Dorm capacity for this spring increased to 97% compared to 90% last semester, according to Corry Colonna, executive director of housing and auxiliary services.
This is the highest number of students living on campus since the addition of a new residential building, Colonna said.
A large number of dorm residents created a challenge for testing, Colonna said, with an increase of in-person classes and testing throughout a two-week period.
“The biggest challenge for us was meeting the requirements for Long Beach Public Health for move-in [day],” Colonna said. “They wanted us to test students before they got here with a PCR test, then we had all 3,000 [students] do a rapid test upon entrance to campus.”
Each dorm building requires residents to undergo a coronavirus test every four weeks, but some students say this is not enough.
“Testing could be done more often than just every four weeks or two weeks,” said Anthony Hernandez, a fourth-year art pre-production major residing at Beachside Village. “Maybe every week, considering everyone is going out still, just to assure everyone’s safety.
Hernandez said COVID-19 safety between roommates is not frequently discussed and is more of an honor system. He said they try to give each other space and mutual respect in how they handle COVID-19 safety precautions.
Mia Garcia, a first-year pre-nursing major and Parkside resident, said it would be best to test every week because “people could get COVID-19 easily.”
Colonna said Long Beach State will continue to reserve COVID-19 isolation rooms for next fall as other CSUs plan to do away with it, feeling “it is fairly safe to assume” low risk of a COVID-19 outbreak.