By Justin Blunt; The Whetstone

Sophomore Leah Jones said she doesn’t like filling out the College’s daily COVID pass. But she does it.

She wouldn’t be able to play field hockey if she didn’t.

She said her coach – as the school does for all Wesley students – requires her and her teammates to do it every day.

Leah Jones

“I guess it’s useful for helping the college to be organized and stuff,” she said. “But for the student aspect of it, it’s not useful because some people aren’t truthful when they fill out the pass.”

Wesley created the daily COVID pass to help track anyone who might show symptoms of the illness that has killed more than 200,000 people across the country.

“I think it makes everyone aware of their own situation,” Christopher Willis, assistant dean of students and director of residence life, said.

He said the COVID pass has been effective.

“We all have a responsibility to do what we can to keep the Wesley community safe,” he said.

Sophomore Alexis Reid said she liked the idea of the daily pass.

“I like it in the sense of keeping track of everyone being sick,” she said. “I don’t like how they rely on the honest system.”

Sophomore Jordan Spagnolo said he completes the pass every day, at midnight, so he doesn’t have to worry about when he wakes up.

He thinks there should more specific questions on the pass so it can show better results.

“You can easily lie on it about the questions,” he said. “There should be more questions on the pass.”

The pass must be completed every day before students leave their rooms. If not completed, the school nurse reaches out to the student to let them know.

The school nurse, Jiggy Patel, said she checks every day if each student fills out the COVID pass.

“I can run a report every day to see which students complete their COVID pass and who did not complete it,” she said.

Patel said the pass helps her determine who needs to get tested or put in quarantine.

She said she wishes more students completed the pass.

“The problem is that our compliance rate for students completing their COVID PASS is very low,” she said. “I’d like to see it go up.”

She said to fix the compliance rate the school has recently offered free testing on campus and it is mandatory.