At the Faculty Senate meeting on Oct. 28, Jason Hicks, a psychology professor and provost’s fellow, gave an update on LSU’s COVID-19 mitigation efforts. In his speech, he stated that monthly testing for unvaccinated students would begin in November.
“Students are notified in the testing protocol. So they get information about when and where they need to do those tests. Again, the tests are done on campus. And in fact, if they haven’t gotten it already, they’ll start receiving notifications. Beginning next week, the first week of November is when the first slate of tests actually starts happening,” said Hicks.
Several faculty members expressed shock at this announcement, as they were under the impression that testing for unvaccinated students began in September, shortly after the vaccine mandate was announced.
Ernie Ballard, university spokesperson, said that this information is not correct.
“The monthly testing for unvaccinated students officially started in September,” Ballard said. “Partially vaccinated students did not have to participate in the monthly testing in September or October. However, moving forward they must get tested on a monthly basis until they are fully vaccinated.”
Hicks says he misspoke and actually meant to use those dates in reference to employee testing. Monthly testing for unvaccinated employees begins in November.
This brief will be updated as more information becomes available.