As of Thursday, Arizona State University had confirmed 480 positive COVID-19 cases among its students and employees, the university said in a statement it released Friday night. That’s a 200% increase from the number ASU reported on Tuesday.
Twenty-eight ASU faculty and staff and 452 students have tested positive for COVID-19 so far. ASU maintains a low positivity rate with students and an even lower positivity rate with faculty and staff, it said in the statement.
More than half of the students who have tested positive live off campus in the metro Phoenix area. About 2% of the 9,645 students who live on the Tempe campus have tested positive. Those students are in isolation, the university said.
Leah Sarat, an associate professor and member of the ASU Community of Care Coalition, said the number of cases is not surprising now that some students back on campus for in-person classes. There have also been reports of off-campus parties.
“The problem is the way the university has set a tone indicating that it is safe to come back, it’s safe to be back in dorms, and we think that the responsibility should really lie at that highest level," Sarat said.
The coalition, which is made up of ASU faculty, staff, graduate student workers, had previously asked the university to reconsider its plan to resume in-person classes. It's also called for greater transparency with ASU’s COVID-19 data.
“Students have no way of knowing where those cases are occurring," Sarat said. "If they are in a class where someone tests positive, they are not to be notified unless they were, I believe, within six feet of contact to that person.”
The university has said students have the option to take classes in-person or virtually, but Sarat thinks it’s irresponsible for ASU to put the onus on individuals while not providing them with specific locations of these COVID-19 cases so they can make informed decisions.
ASU has said it wouldn’t publish specific COVID data to protect individuals’ privacy. If ASU isn’t able to keep people safe while maintaining their privacy, Sarat said it would be better to hold classes virtually.
