The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will return to randomized COVID testing for all students, faculty and staff regardless of vaccine status beginning in the spring semester, Chancellor Ronnie Green announced Wednesday.
Currently, UNL requires randomized testing for those on campus who have not voluntarily registered their vaccine card with the university -- a change that took effect on Nov. 14.
In an email, Green said the emergence of new and potentially more transmissible COVID variants such as omicron led to the change in UNL's approach for the coming semester.
"The rise of this variant is an example of our need to be able to determine any spread of COVID-19 among all individuals on our campus, quickly isolate positive cases, and determine if additional testing is necessary to limit concentrated spread," he wrote.
Random testing requiring a saliva sample will start the week of Jan. 16, which is when the spring semester is slated to begin.
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Students, faculty and staff selected for testing will be notified through the Safer Community app, Green said, which will allow them to schedule a time to test and provide them results.
“The Safer Community app will continue to be a tool for scheduling COVID-19 testing and for obtaining your results,†Green wrote. “However, in the spring, it will not be used for access to campus buildings.â€
The university started using the Safer Community app in January to inform students and faculty when they were required to test, share test results and notify them of potential exposures.
Beginning this fall, students and employees who registered their vaccines into a voluntary registry, or tested negative for COVID, could gain entrance to campus buildings by showing their app to employees at the door.
For months, the app attracted little attention off campus until groups like Nebraskans for Founders’ Values organized opposition to it at meetings of the Board of Regents, likening the program to a “vaccine passport.â€
The Omaha-based nonprofit, which was criticized for using a quote from Adolf Hitler as part of its booth display at the York County Fair in August, urged members to attend board meetings and speak against the app and provided false or misleading talking points about it.
Despite calls to end the use of the app, regents did not take any action during either of their last two meetings.
Deb Fiddelke, UNL's chief communications officer, said the change in how the Safer Community app is being used reflects the needs of the campus during this stage of the pandemic.
Although vaccination rates at UNL are high -- nearly 85% of faculty and more than 80% of staff members are vaccinated, as well as 78% of students -- new COVID variants and the potential for breakthrough infections has changed the university's approach, Fiddelke said.
"Changing risk profiles mean we need new measures to adapt," she said, and follow guidance from the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department and Centers for Disease Control.
The new protocols comes less than a month after UNL loosened its testing requirements on campus. Fiddelke said she thinks students are accustomed to rapid changes brought on by COVID.
"I think they are used to it," Fiddelke said. "This spring, we will reach the point where we have been dealing with the pandemic for two years. People are used to this disease being completely unpredictable."
Green urged campus members to get vaccinated or to seek a booster and announced UNL will hold a pair of clinics on Dec. 8 for anyone to get a shot:
* 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Nebraska Union's Regency Suite.
* 2:30-3:30 p.m. in the East Union's Prairie Suite.
UNL community members receiving a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine or a booster shot are asked to bring their vaccine cards.
The clinic will also offer flu shots.