News Brief: Post Pesach COVID-19 Testing Changes, Inaugural Leadership Scholar Cohort Announced

Post Pesach COVID-19 Testing Changes

A change in university COVID-19 policies will take place after the Pesach break, including switching all tests to rapid antigen, introducing a mandatory testing requirement once classes resume in place of submission of external tests before arriving to campus and the relocation of testing to Furst Hall room 501 on Wilf Campus.

According to the email outlining these changes, students will not be required to submit a test to return to campus, because “return to campus tests taken over Pesach are unlikely to pick up COVID infections.” However, students will be required to test on one of the first two days that classes resume, with student IDs being deactivated on the evening of April 26 for those that don’t.

A notable change on Wilf Campus will be the relocation of testing from Belfer Hall room 921 to Furst Hall room 501, where testing had taken place last year and earlier this year. Testing on Beren Campus will remain at 215 Lexington room 501.

Additionally, beginning after the Pesach break, the university will be returning to using NAVICA rapid antigen tests for weekly testing. Students must present the unique QR code from the downloaded NAVICA app to the testing site administrators in order to test, according to the email sent to students. Previously, if students did not have the app, they were required to add their names on a Microsoft Excel sheet at the testing site.

YU Announces Inaugural Cohort of Leadership Scholars

Ten current and incoming Yeshiva University students were announced as the inaugural cohort of Leadership Scholars, the Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership reported in a digital newsletter sent through email to undergraduate students on April 12.

The cohort, composed of five women and five men who showed leadership potential through communal service and activism, will develop and hone “their leadership skills through seminars, mentorship opportunities and travel programs,” Dr. Erica Brown, director of the Sacks-Herenstein Center, said in the release. 
This announcement comes following the launch event of the Sacks-Herenstein Center, held in Wilf Campus’s Lamport Auditorium on April 3.