All Islander students, faculty, and staff at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi were required to receive a mandatory COVID-19 test between Aug. 23 and Sept. 10 of the 2021 fall semester. Students who failed to comply with TAMU-CC’s fall requirement were subject to the Student Conduct process, while faculty/staff were held accountable through university processing. 

John LaRue, the Chief of Ethics and Compliance Officer explains that students who failed to complete the requirement received a transcript hold, which “prevents the student from receiving a copy of their transcript.”

“To remove the transcript hold, students have to complete the appropriate sanction through Student Engagement and Success, which is a COVID-19 safety education course,” LaRue says.

As reported by Associate Vice President for Student Engagement & Success and Dean of Students, Ann DeGaish, “8,600 faculty, staff and students take the test in the fall semester. Students that were 100% online or at the Rellis campus were excluded from the required testing.”

“There were seven hundred seventy six students that did not comply….There were a number of faculty and staff (35) that also did not comply,” DeGaish says. 

According to DeGaish, faculty and staff who failed to complete the requirement became ineligible for merit raises and “received a letter of reprimand in their employment file. The supervisors were responsible for making sure this happened.”

TAMU-CC third year nursing student Alexandria Golden recalls having missed the deadline for the COVID-19 testing requirement due to scheduling conflicts. She mentions receiving several emails urging to go through testing, but she was never able to do so.

“I received an email from the school saying I need to sign this document where I acknowledged that I failed to complete the testing requirement, so I signed it, but I don’t remember anything else happening after that. I was actually a little relieved,” Golden says. 

As people returned from summer break, the requirement was implemented to prevent a mass spread of the virus on campus. “The greatest benefit was that it helped identify individuals that were positive but were asymptomatic. Once someone was identified as positive, they were notified and required to follow the university protocol related to COVID,” DeGaish says. 

For now, if you have been in contact with someone with COVID-19, or have COVID-19, you must isolate and remain in quarantine per CDC and campus guidelines. For more information on testing, campus COVID updates and more, visit TAMUCC’s campus covid guide.