As the new president of Brigham Young University-Hawaii, the rise in statewide COVID-19 cases at the beginning of the holiday season concerned me greatly. In response, starting Dec. 15, our university implemented mandatory weekly testing of members of the BYU-Hawaii community as our COVID-19 management strategy. As of Jan. 23, in cooperation with Nomi Health, we have conducted more than 6,152 NAAT tests for COVID-19.
This number represents weekly testing of all individuals regularly using our campus, including students, employees, contractors and Polynesian Cultural Center employees. Weekly testing is coupled with rapid and thorough contact tracing, substantial university support for those who require isolation and quarantine, and careful adherence to state mandate face-covering, hygiene and physical-distancing practices.
This has been a very large undertaking and has required considerable effort and cooperation from every member of our university community.
Our COVID-19 management approach has allowed us to rapidly find cases, even those that are asymptomatic, and begin isolation and contact tracing to reduce spread here on campus and throughout the community.
The results have been striking. Even as we continue to bring students back and provide essential educational experiences, positivity rates in our testing declined rapidly and now remain 10 times lower than state rates.
We are all suffering from the impacts of the pandemic, and there are steps that we can take to minimize these impacts. Each organization and community must consider operations and safety options to find a balance that ensures the well-being of the people in the organization and those they serve. Our approach balances those two factors for our university community while also protecting the broader Ko‘olauloa community where BYU-Hawaii is located.
Vaccines are promising, but the timeline for achieving widespread vaccination remains unclear. While there is no program or strategy that can remove 100% of the risks associated with providing schooling or doing business, we can and must do more to provide services. Our children are suffering. Our families are suffering. Our communities are hurting. All of us, together with our leaders, must work together to find a better way to safely and effectively provide education, jobs, and wholesome recreation to our residents and the many visitors that frequent this great state.
BYU-Hawaii continues to work toward increased face-to-face instruction and expanded student life activities for the education and well-being of our students. Since November, 30-50 students have returned each week through our extended quarantine process. Today, we have approximately 1,400 students using campus services, and we are offering about 10% of our courses face-to-face. In addition, we are providing a variety of student life activities.
The circumstances here at BYU-Hawaii have obvious parallels with the state of Hawaii. The data from the first six weeks of our efforts clearly suggests that a model which includes extensive testing can complement existing efforts to drastically reduce the introduction and spread of the virus here in Hawaii.
It is our honor to serve the Ko‘olauloa community, and we stand ready to do our part to keep our community, island, and state safe and well. We hope our successful model will inspire others, including government leaders, to implement a more aggressive testing strategy that helps to contain the virus while safely allowing schools, businesses and recreational activities to be more open.
John S.K. Kauwe III is president of BYU-Hawaii in Laie; he holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in molecular biology, and a Ph.D. in evolution, ecology and population biology.
