As COVID-19 continues to find its way into many conversations, campus protocol may not be showing clear progress
The Cleveland State University Leadership Team emailed the campus community thanking them for their committed efforts in slowing the spread of COVID-19 on Oct. 21.
In the email, the campus community was commended for doing their part in upholding the standard that has been expected in order to keep students on campus. In addressing the recently proposed, “Knowledge is Contagious” campaign, the email continued to describe its main focuses.
“Our ‘Knowledge is Contagious’ campaign provides information on vaccine safety and effectiveness, and where to get the vaccine,” said the Leadership Team. “The campaign also includes stories from our peers who have chosen to get vaccinated.”
As the incentivized vaccination drive moves along, drawing winners have been chosen and the plan involving dollars has shown that it is getting people vaccinated.
However, it is unclear how the plan is actually working to slow the spread.
If CSU, like many other universities in Ohio, allowed students to see exact data tracking on their website, then the picture might be clearer about how well things are going.
For every week that the CSU COVID-19 Dashboard is updated, numbers change to show if the infection rate is trending up or down. But, there is no option on the website to navigate to a collection of data.
An option to view data over time would likely answer many questions about how CSU is progressing in their previously mentioned plans of using peer-to-peer education, incentivized vaccinations, and mask-wearing to excel in fighting the virus.
As of Oct. 26, CSU has zero students isolating on-campus, 22 students isolating off-campus and two employees isolating off campus. As for quarantining, there are 13 students in quarantine off campus, with one student in quarantine on-campus and 0 employees in quarantine off-campus, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard.
If someone were to wonder how the university is sure that those who should be in isolation or quarantine are actually staying contact-free, there would be no certain answer for their questions.
Fluctuating numbers every week can be a positive or negative presentation of what direction the process is actually moving in.
If the Leadership Team is keeping track of this data, then where is it? And why is it not viewable for the public?
While the campus community has been informed that students, faculty, and staff are taking the time to get vaccinated, on-campus COVID-19 vaccination rates are also unavailable.
Many speculations can be made about where this information is being stored.
Data seems to be crucial at many other public universities. The CSU Leadership Team has the option to either release the numbers or keep them private, as the protocol continues to play out with its focus on slowing the spread.