News
Wendy Gelbard

The success of RIT’s Tiger Testing campaign is made possible by campus-wide collaborations involving more than 100 employees working behind the scenes to support RIT’s COVID-19 response.

The early weeks of RIT’s mandatory COVID-19 testing program have shown high compliance rates and commitment among students.

RIT successfully completed all 13 weeks of in-person instruction this fall without having to suspend or cancel classes due to coronavirus outbreaks. Despite having a large, active campus with students from many countries and all 50 states, RIT had a relatively low rate of infection and avoided major outbreaks.

Thousands of COVID-19 tests were completed on campus for RIT students this semester. And more than 65 RIT staff members volunteered—often with little advance notice—with the Tiger Testing Team to set up testing stations and walk students through the process of sample collection.

RIT turned some heads over the summer when it announced it would begin testing wastewater on campus for traces of COVID-19, but the method has proven to be an important piece of intelligence for the university to combat the spread of coronavirus.

RIT has started randomized testing to monitor the spread of COVID-19 among students and to facilitate a quick response to potential outbreaks on cam​pus. A randomly selected group of 183 students were tested on Aug. 25, and additional students were tested on Aug. 26 and 27. All results were negative.