Students on campus began to receive notifications on Tuesday morning from the third party vendor employed by the University to conduct COVID-19 testing, Verily, that the seven to 10 day testing window for undergraduate testing had been reduced to two to four days by the University. 

This purported change in testing frequency was not announced or explained by the University. 

When asked about changes to the testing policy, Communications Director for the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Affairs Pat Harris wrote that “The testing cadence has not changed. Stanford students are still required to be tested once per week.”

Harris added that “a recent change to the Verily system that allows students who wish to be tested more than once weekly resulted in this miscommunication. We are working with Verily to address this as quickly as possible.”

Associate Dean Orlando White, who is responsible for undergraduate residence Escondido Village Graduate Residence A (EVGR-A) told The Daily that he was informed of the change the previous day but not given the reasoning as to why the change had occurred. 

A Verily spokesperson told The Daily that the testing interval had changed due to changes in University policy that required students to be tested on the new, shorter timeframe. 

Kate Selig contributed reporting.

Contact Ari Gabriel at arijgab ‘at’ stanford.edu.