UW mobilized to offer free COVID testing in pandemic. It helped keep college campuses open.

Editor’s note: This is the second chapter of a 5-part series in which former University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson and Vice President Jim Langdon reflect on their experience guiding the system though the COVID-19 pandemic. After making a controversial decision to return to in-person classes in the fall of 2020, they discuss the innovative testing program that helped limit the spread of COVID at colleges and the communities they serve.

A new academic year produces its own kind of excitement on college campuses. Upperclassmen return with a sense of familiarity and confidence that eluded them as freshmen. Freshmen arrive with enthusiasm or apprehension or both as they escape their parents’ shadow. Faculty and staff are reenergized following summer breaks.

COVID-19 added other dimensions in fall 2020.

Students forced out of dormitories and classrooms six months earlier reconnected with masked classmates and professors in unfamiliar environments. Over the summer, UW facility directors reconfigured building traffic patterns to specify where and sometimes in which directions people could walk. They also installed new equipment including hand sanitizer dispensers and plexiglass dividers to stop the transmission of virus-carrying droplets. And signs were everywhere. Wash your hands frequently. Keep six feet apart. Check your symptoms. Stay home if sick. Cover your cough and sneeze.

UW System helped pioneer new COVID-19 testing regimen

At the pandemic’s outset, PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests required administration by a trained health care professional and up to three days for results. In July 2020, CDC Director Robert Redfield and President Thompson discussed another solution. Redfield suggested using rapid antigen tests which could produce results in 15 minutes and were easier to administer. A positive antigen test, he said, could be followed by a PCR test to confirm an infection, and a person with a negative antigen test could go about their lives without isolating for 72 hours awaiting test results.

President Thompson requested CDC’s assistance to set up UW testing sites for the fall 2020 semester including surge testing for the public. Redfield agreed and thus began a partnership that supplied federal testing supplies and services on UW campuses for the next year. Tens of millions of dollars of services through the federal Increased Community Access to Testing program would eventually provide over half a million tests for students, faculty, staff and the public at UW campuses.

Read part 1: Even as COVID raged, I knew opening UW campuses was right call for the sake of students

UW chancellors did the heavy lifting to establish community testing sites during that fall. Demand was high and UW-Superior Chancellor Renée Wachter had perhaps the greatest challenge because many Duluth, Minnesota citizens flocked to her campus due to its accessibility and use of antigen tests. The Superior experience was unique but also emblematic of the extraordinary efforts all UW campuses undertook to serve their communities.

Credit also goes to Gov. Tony Evers’ administration for allocating federal COVID funds to support UW community testing, especially in areas with underserved populations like Milwaukee where Chancellor Mark Mone opened his campus to serve citizens who otherwise did not always have testing available in their neighborhoods.

The UW System also worked closely with local health offices to coordinate testing activities in their communities. Local health directors provided invaluable advice as campuses established locations, times and days of service, and communication strategies to reach residents. Thanks to the UW and its partners, Wisconsin citizens received critical COVID-19 testing services that led them to healthier, more productive lives.

Personal responsibility key to keeping campuses open, safe

The plan to reopen campuses also hinged on creating an ethos of personal responsibility and mutual support. President Thompson recalls a visit with UW-Eau Claire students during their first few weeks on campus when seniors delivered the following message to freshmen: “We want to remain on campus and we know you do too, so take the virus seriously. Wear a mask, watch your distance, and wash your hands.” Seniors, especially, did not want to return to studying from mom and dad’s basement.

And chancellors went above and beyond to drive home the importance of personal responsibility. UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Jim Schmidt and his team visited campus area bars and coffee shops to monitor student behavior and reinforce the importance of wearing masks at all times. UW-Parkside’s Debbie Ford and other chancellors faithfully wore masks on and off-campus to model behaviors to stop the spread.

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The testing program paid immediate dividends when cases started to appear on campuses. At UW- Madison, pre-semester parties produced a spike in cases and Chancellor Rebecca Blank acted aggressively to limit student gatherings. Her decision slowed the spread and Madison had few problems thereafter. Chancellors Joe Gow and Connie Foster used test results to identify case increases at UW-La Crosse and UW-River Falls, respectively, in early September. They moved classes online and ordered sheltering in place for two weeks; cases dropped and each campus enjoyed an in-person semester.

Per UW System’s aggressive policies, residence hall students were tested every two weeks although some campuses exceeded minimum standards. UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Andy Leavitt, for instance, required that residence hall students be tested every week and saw an immediate drop in case rates. The CDC noted Leavitt’s approach was among the most aggressive in the nation and studied his results. Similarly, UW-Green Bay Chancellor Mike Alexander established protocols to follow up with residence hall students who missed testing appointments. The result? UW-Green Bay’s positivity rates outperformed its region where COVID rates were at times among the nation’s highest.

Smash COVID showed all communication didn’t need to be dire

Our fall 2020 success also owed thanks to innovative communication. Notably, UW System Communications Director Jack Jablonski created a successful program to inform students of COVID-19’s dangers and ways to prevent contracting or passing the disease. The “Smash COVID” series featured President Thompson in seven short videos asking students to “mask up, get tested and quarantine if necessary.” The online videos featured serious messages against a light-hearted background of Thompson growling “Smash COVID!” while destroying pumpkins, glass, milk cartons and more with a mallet, baseball bat and crowbar.

The efforts to keep universities safe produced expected results: UW provided in-person instruction during the fall 2020 semester. Moreover, UW COVID rates were generally lower than in the general population allowing President Thompson to factually boast: “The safest place in Wisconsin is on a UW campus.”

Coming next week: Beating back new strains along with the burden of pandemic politics.

Tommy G. Thompson was elected governor of Wisconsin four times, serving from 1987 to 2001. In 2001, he became Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a post he held for four years. He previously served in the State Assembly from 1967 to his election as governor. Jim Langdon served in appointed positions under governors Thompson, Scott McCallum, Jim Doyle, Scott Walker and Tony Evers from 1989-2020, and at UW System from 2020-2022.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tommy Thompson used relationships with CDC to pilot COVID testing