Young Democratic Socialists of America at UVA’s response to the University’s Covid-19 policies

YDSA at UVA is alarmed with the current response to the Covid-19 pandemic from the University of Virginia. We believe the current measures taking place to prevent the spread of Covid to other students, workers, and community members is irresponsible, and harmful. The Delta variant of Covid-19 has changed the game on what is risky. Whereas vaccinated, asymptomatic people in the past could not reasonably spread the virus, the Delta variant can be transmitted by vaccinated individuals.

Recent data on cases at UVA show cause for concern. Students showed a 4.7 percent positive test rate and a much higher number of cases than just two weeks ago. But these numbers don’t show the whole story. Testing is no longer mandatory for students, and without this data, students, workers, and community members can’t assess the risk UVA is putting us all in. Duke University does widespread prevalence testing, and with about one-third the undergrad students, they found they had nearly 300 cases. How many cases has the UVA administration failed to detect because they aren’t doing mandatory testing? Scanning the UVA student Time2Test website reveals that UVA is decreasing testing capacity too. In mid and late August there were over 400 testing slots at the Student Activities Building in any given 2 hour period, and now there appears to be closer to 50 slots at the new testing in Scott Stadium.

We are also concerned with the lack of reporting Covid cases to students, workers and community members. We’ve encountered multiple instances of UVA not notifying classes when someone has tested positive. This points to a Covid policy that is risking student and worker health for the sake of having an ostensibly “normal” semester. We remember, however, the reality of UVA’s Covid response last year, the way in which administration members allowed fraternities to be shielded from criticism at the expense of thousands.

There’s another argument underneath UVA’s covid policy, which is that even if students--vaccinated, young-- get sick, they will be okay. That students are willing to have mild symptoms in exchange for the UVA experience. In truth, the individual tradeoff of getting sick in exchange for a more robust college experience may be a risk some students are willing to take. The reality of this policy, however, is that it implies UVA bears no responsibility to the community and city of Charlottesville. We disagree. Socialists believe in solidarity, a recognition that whether you are a student, worker, or community member, you have fundamental interests as a working-class person that puts you at odds with behemoth corporations, monstrous universities, and capitalism in all corners of the earth. We aren’t surprised that UVA is abdicating its responsibilities to Charlotesville, and Albemarle. The long history of UVA as an explicit vehicle for capitalist expansion, and racist degragation, especially of Charlottesville’s Black community is well documented. Young Democratic Socialists of America is responding explicitly to both the safety of students, and workers, but also to the belief that we share far more in common with the interests of Charlottesville community members than we do with University administration.

We believe there are key measures UVA must take in order to protect the safety of students, workers, and community members. We outline those demands below, and encourage you to sign in support:

1. Full semester indoor mask mandate, and supplying every student and worker with an N95 (or equivalent) mask.

2. Mandatory prevalence testing for students every 2 weeks in addition to expansion of testing capacity for workers and community members.

3. Expansion of contact tracing to include students who are in classes with infected people. Notification of students and instructors of infected people.

4. Universal modification of class attendance policies to accommodate sick students, such as posting notes, recording lectures, having flexible due dates

5. UVA should allow for hybrid teaching options for students, TAs, and Professors, so that people can assess risk of classes