About 8% of LSU students, faculty and staff completed the university’s daily symptom checker on class days during the fall 2021 semester, records obtained by The Reveille show.
Use of the symptom checker also steadily declined as the fall semester dragged on. Over 10,000 LSU personnel used the checker on the first day of class, Aug. 23 – that number rarely surpassed 3,000 past the midpoint of the semester, in October.
Excluding weekends, holidays, campus closures and makeup days, about an average of 3,314 LSU students and employees used the symptom checker – just 8% of the university’s 39,000 students, faculty and staff.
The university relies partially on the daily symptom tracker to COVID-19 cases on campus. Students and employees weren’t required to complete the survey each day last semester, unless they received a positive COVID-19 test off campus.
Students and employees were prompted to complete the checker every day via email or text message. It asks participants if they’re experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and then provides feedback on whether they should come to campus.
In previous semesters, LSU placed staff at the entrances of high-traffic buildings, like the Union and library, to check students’ QR codes included in the daily symptom checker. That practice was abandoned last semester due to the school’s high vaccination rate, said LSU spokesperson Ernie Ballard.
“The purpose of the DSC during the 2021-22 academic year is to help students and employees monitor their symptoms, allow individuals to report test results and to initiate the contact tracing process,” wrote LSU when responding to a records request. “In addition, the DSC provides detailed instructions to individuals who test positive or who have come in close contact with someone who has tested positive.”
Completion of the checker won’t be required this semester, raising concerns about the accuracy of case counts on campus. Self-reporting through the survey is one of two ways LSU tracks positive cases within the community, the other method being positive tests at on-campus testing sites like the Student Health Center and Student Union.
If students test positive off campus or complete an at-home rapid test, there’s no guarantee they’ll report it to the university, and the positivity rate could be much higher than LSU’s COVID-19 dashboard suggests. LSU will use the positivity rate to determine whether classes will be held in their original in-person format in two weeks, or remain online for professors who chose to move to virtual while Omicron spreads through Louisiana.
Health officials have said that there are likely two to three more times as many COVID-19 cases in the state than are officially reported, due in part to home tests and testing shortages.
If the campus positivity rate is below 10% on Feb. 1, professors teaching online will revert to an in-person format.
Ballard stressed that the symptom checker is one of many ways the university is seeking to control the spread of the virus.
“The LSU Tigercheck system is one of many tools, along with entry testing, wastewater testing, monthly testing for the unvaccinated, mask wearing, that the university has in place to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” Ballard said. “The LSU Tigercheck system is used for more than just symptom monitoring. It is a comprehensive system that helps the university mitigate the spread of COVID.”
Jen Cook, a leadership and human resource development freshman, is one of the few students who uses the daily symptom checker regularly. She said she uses it everyday when she leaves her dorm room.
“It’s really short and I feel like it helps reflect how many people are sick,” she said. “The more data that the university has, the more informed the decisions about public safety are. It’s a small addition to my morning walk to class that can help others.”
Other students are not so sure. Lupe Estrada, a sociology and criminology sophomore, said she never uses it.
“If it’s based off how I’m feeling everyday, I wouldn’t have a day of class,” she said.
Even when LSU required the daily symptom checker, enforcement was loose.
“I didn’t fill out the form for over a week and literally nothing happened,” Anna Moody, an LSU graduate student, told the Reveille in fall 2020. “It’s unfortunate knowing there’s no consequences.”
Gretchen Stein, an associate dean in the College of Science, said that she uses it everyday “just to be a good university citizen,” but said that she never understood the point of it.