BY CORIE LYNN
More than a month into the fall semester, Fort Hays State University students still have questions about COVID-19 and how the virus affects campus life.
In the hopes of answering those questions, the FHSU Student Government Association invited Lynn Adams, Director of Student Health and a member of the Critical Incident Policy Board, to speak at the group’s meeting on Thursday. Already over Zoom, this meeting was streamed through Facebook so students could hear what Adams had to say.
The questions posed during this portion of the meeting were precompiled by SGA members. Questions centered on testing, specifically why students weren’t required to test for the virus upon arriving on campus and whether dining service staff, or any campus employee, regularly tests for the virus.
“Testing sounds really simple because you get a specimen, you send it, but that’s the extent of the donor’s involvement,” Adams said.
Testing, however, also includes test requisition and recording, as well as the additional problem of enforcing the tests. Because of these additional aspects, FHSU did not have access to the capacity needed to require tests for 4,000 people.
As Adams pointed out, however, FHSU has moved from entry to surveillance testing and COVID-19 nasopharyngeal swabs will still be available at the Student Health Center for symptomatic students.
One student also asked why the university has not moved completely to remote learning, especially as there has been a spike in positive cases in the area.
“It’s tempting to look at the university as a whole, but what we have, in fact, are pockets,” Adams said, “and sometimes it doesn’t make sense to eliminate an entire section when what we have are pockets.”
Surveillance testing, he explained, will test these groups, which tend to create the spikes in virus cases.
In addition, he explained that he hopes to have readily available tests for asymptomatic students by the end of the year as there is a company that has developed 15-minute nose swab tests that the federal government plans to distribute to states.
“And I don’t know when that would happen, but that would be a relief to say, ‘Yeah, you want to test. Here’s a test. Just take it.’ I hope we get there,” Adams said.
Before concluding his time at the meeting, he reminded the students that the Student Health Center will begin their free flu shot clinic this Thursday, and they could schedule their appointment through Tiger Tracks.
In addition to preventing the flu before it can start, these clinics are important in the context of COVID-19. Adams explained that if students aren’t feeling well, if they have the flu vaccine, they can better rule out what virus they might have contracted.
With the conclusion of the Q&A, SGA President Reiter began the executive reports.
During this time, she informed the senators that she spent her week working on the Virtual Student Senate and Freshman/KAMS elections, which open at 8 a.m. Wednesday and close at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
She also helped allocate $500 to students through the Student Emergency Assistance Fund. Applications, which are available to any student, are available online through the SGA website.
The previous week, the student senators sent their campus improvement ideas and inquiries to Vice President Homman. He answered many of the improvements and questions during his report that evening.
Ideas included addressing trash collection and traffic issues in the residential areas on campus, but many centered on on-campus dining, such as limited cafeteria hours, implementing composting and additional vegan meal options.
Homman informed the senators that the campus dining service is working with the FHSU farm to compost food waste and residential life is now looking into more vegan options. The limited hours of the cafeteria, however, remain so that the dining staff can continue to thoroughly sanitize the cafeteria between meals.
Additional executive reports came from Legislative Affairs Director Rojas – who updated the SGA on her voter registration efforts and that free legal counseling is scheduled for Sep. 29 – and from Community Relations Director Siebert – who posted information about Virtual Student and Freshmen/KAMS candidates and began planning the spring’s Big Event.
The only committee reports came from the Senate Affairs and the General Education Committees. The former had two interviews while the later reviewed course rubrics during their meetings.
The main discussion during the Open Forum that followed came from Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Joey Linn and from LAD Rojas.
Linn began by informing the senators that Reiter represents FHSU well to the Kansas Board of Regents, members of which have noted that she is well-spoken and professional.
He then explained that, in the coming weeks, he hoped to have additional faculty speakers at the SGA meetings. This includes Provost Jill Arenesdorf, who wants to update the senators on the spring semester, and FHSU’s General Counsel Joe Bain, who can answer further COVID-19 questions.
LAD Rojas then took the time to explain how she learned about the experience of race on campus during the week’s Conversations Create Change panel. She said she was shocked to hear that the African Ambassador who spoke at the panel did not feel safe coming to campus because of treatment she received from students and faculty.
“And to me, that felt very disheartening because, first of all, Hays may not seem like the best community for welcoming [people of color], but, at the same time, it felt very really unfair and, overall, I was very concerned for her mental health,” Rojas said.
Before concluding the Open Forum, Reiter explained to her that she and her fellow SGA Presidents were seeking to improve both student health insurance and mental health services at KBOR, which includes making services more accessible to students of color.
“It’s not something that goes unnoticed. I know we can always improve on that,” Reiter said.
Following the Open Forum, the senators read two new bills and passed a bill allowing student organizations flexibility in utilizing rollover funds from events cancelled due to COVID-19.
The evening concluded with announcements about the Tri Sigma March of Dimes awareness campaigns, an Oct. 3 Halloween movie fest at the Kanopolis drive-in theater and the annual Swipe Out Hunger meal packaging event.
The Student Government Association then adjourned and will reconvene this Thursday at 7 p.m.