By KAYLA DEMICCO
Co-Executive Editor
On Oct. 21, Student Association held their weekly general meeting over Zoom and socially distanced in Saint Joseph’s Hall auditorium. That week’s special order was Emily Ilowitt, one of the nurse practitioners at the Health Center, who mainly spoke about testing for COVID-19.
As the Health Center is now open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays, they are available for “practically everything,” according to Ilowit. The two types of testing that is offered are a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that is sent to the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and the spit sample test. Students are encouraged to take either test depending on their need for timely results. For the PCR test, it is more accurate when there is at least three days within contact. For the spit sample test, there is more accuracy within four days of contact. These on-campus tests are available for students only.
If students are looking to be screened for testing, they are advised to call Health Services at (518) 454-5244 to set up an appointment. Ilowitt says scheduling is very important as they want to limit in person visits to the best they could for COVID-19 testing. Since the college bought hundreds of these rapid testing kits, there is no cost for students to take these tests. Ilowit debunked the myth that getting these tests are hard to get. The myth comes from the fact that the swabs for the test are running low. Due to this, they would like to save those tests for students who really need them (for example, if a friend of theirs came up positive). In this case, students are only required to quarantine until they get their results back.
If anyone is looking to get testing anywhere else, the Albany Department of Health has plenty of different options all around the city to choose from. Albany DOH can be reached at (518) 447-4580.
If anyone knows another on-campus individual that is on-campus that they are concerned for they are concerned for their well-being, they should reach out to Health Center.
Aside from COVID-19 testing, now that the Health Center has full-time staff, they offer full services such as testing for other things such as strep, flu, pregnancy and glucose are available as well.
On Oct. 28, Student Association held their weekly general meeting over Zoom and socially-distanced in Saint Joseph’s Hall auditorium. Young-In Kim, Access Services and Assessment Librarian and Library Faculty, from the Neil Hellman Library spoke about changes the library has made since the semester started.
As there are a limited number of staff members, the services that the library offers is very different compared to previous semesters and physical access is limited. Since there are no open doors, entrance to the library is by appointment only. Reference services have moved completely online through the library’s website. Even though chatting with a librarian online was always available 24/7, during regular library hours, users will be speaking with one of the college’s librarians. If anyone needs materials from the library, they must request them as a part of their new door-side service. All of this information and more is available on the library’s website at https://library.strose.edu/home. As the library is in the process of evaluating how the semester is going for students in terms of the library, any comments for feedback are welcome to contact Kim at [email protected].
The library has started an outreach effort where people can share how they feel about the election.
The Student Association e-board has decided to merge the Student Outreach committee and the Community Service committee, any questions on that can reach out to Augusta O’Connell at [email protected] or Natalie Davis at [email protected].
The 100 hours of service campaign is still going on and so far, over 900 hours have been recorded. Questions about that can reach out to Cherèva M. McClellan, director of student life and coordinator of family relations, at [email protected] or Vito Van Dunk, Saint Rose alum and co-chair of the college’s centennial celebration, at [email protected] or visit the website at https://www.strose.edu/100-hours-of-service/.
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