As The New School enters its fourth week of classes, at least five known students and one faculty member have been able to enter campus buildings despite failing to obtain and upload up-to-date negative test results.
The New School’s COVID-19 Community Guide states that vaccinated students and faculty must provide a negative test every 14 days to access campus buildings.
At least four students and one faculty member have reported that their ID cards are still granting them access to university buildings despite having exceeded the 14-day requirement for updated test results.
Theo Lim-Jisra, a first-year at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, took his second test 14 days after taking his first. Two days later, he received an email reporting a severe backlog of testing. This meant that his test results would not be returned before the 14-day period was up.
“I received that email in the morning and I was worried because I had an afternoon class that day and that teacher is not particularly friendly towards the whole Zoom situation, so I just decided to try it,” Lim-Jisra said. “I went into the building and I got out my wallet and I scanned it and it let me through, so I didn’t question it.”
At the time his ID card allowed him to access campus, Lim-Jisra’s Student Health Services portal showed a red badge, which, according to signs posted at building entrances, indicates no access to campus.
At least three other students have reported similar stories.
Zoe Kahn, a third-year at Lang, said she tried to get a Binx test on a Friday afternoon ahead of the Monday when the 14-day period since her last test would end. But she arrived after they had closed. Kahn opted, instead, to take a CityMD test and submit her own results to Student Health Services — a process that caused her to miss the two-week deadline.
“That began this whole spiral of ‘how am I ever gonna get into class?’,” Kahn said. “I ended up just having to wait, emailing my teachers to warn them [that] I may not be allowed on campus, only for the health portal to just not do its job.”
Kahn’s Student Health Services badge remained green and her ID card let her onto campus although her testing status was outside of the 14-day window.
The New School’s policy does not appear to provide a grace period for students who have taken a test but are still awaiting their results after the 14-day period has ended.
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Renée White and Executive Vice President for Business and Operations Tokumbo Shobowale said in an email to The New School community on Sep. 10 that vaccinated individuals must have taken a test — and not necessarily received a negative result — 14 days after the date of their last test, possibly implying a grace period.
It remains unclear whether the 14-day period is measured from the date the test is administered or the date the result is received, by the student or the school administration.
Regardless, both Lim-Jisra and Kahn had exceeded the 14-day mark, experienced opposite campus access badge statuses on the Student Health Services portal and both were able to access campus despite the confusion.
The New School Free Press will update this story once it has interviewed a New School COVID-19 coordinator.