Be a part of the COVID response team

We have volunteer opportunities available for students interested in helping with the COVID-19 response efforts on campus. Specifically, these opportunities are either overseeing the self-administered saliva tests or pooling the saliva tests in the laboratory. 

The test coordination is student facing, and volunteers will interact with students that are required to get the saliva screening test. The self-administered saliva tests are the same saliva tests that all students have had upon arrival to campus. To volunteer in this capacity means a risk of coronavirus exposure similar to what essential workers such as grocery store clerks face daily. Volunteers will follow a script ensuring the student is eligible for the test and takes the test appropriately. Volunteers will also input data into our testing database and record the identifiers for a finished test.

Test pooling duties include data entry and pooling saliva tests. Data entry consists of inputting a students’ ID number, the test number, and labeling the pool with a unique identifier. Pooling saliva tests consists of combining individual saliva tests into a pool. For pooling saliva tests students must have completed at least one laboratory based biology or chemistry course (or equivalent).

Available dates for volunteers are August 24-28, September 8-14, September 24-28, October 15-19, and November 5-9. Volunteer times are 11am-6pm, and you can sign up for any combination of dates and times that work with your schedule. Please sign up to volunteer using this Qualtrics survey: COVID-19 Response Volunteer Sign-up. We will reach out to scheduled volunteers one week before the date, or closer for the week of August 24-28.

For any questions please contact the Syracuse Coronavirus Response Team Helpdesk at sucovid@syr.edu.