Lisa Lorish, a Charlottesville-based former public defender, began her term on the Virginia Court of Appeals this month. Supplied photo.
This year, Virginia’s Democrat-led legislature authorized a historic expansion of the Virginia Court of Appeals. The move pushed the number of judges from 11 to 17, and diversified the court significantly: The new crop of judges includes four Black people, four women, two public defenders, and a legal aid attorney. One of those public defenders, Lisa Lorish, is also the first-ever Court of Appeals judge from Charlottesville.
Lorish, a lecturer at the UVA School of Law, started her term on the court September 1, and she’ll serve until 2029. She and her fellow judges will be tasked with managing a large new load of cases—thanks to legislation passed this year, Virginia now guarantees everyone the right to appeal all civil and criminal decisions by lower courts. The Old Dominion had been the only state in the country that didn’t guarantee that right.
“Being on the Court of Appeals is a very different role than my current work,” Lorish says. “Right now I’m an advocate. On the Court of Appeals, I’ll be a neutral, impartial judge who applies laws, instead of arguing under the law.”
Locally, Lorish is a member of the board of directors of the Fountain Fund, a nonprofit that provides low-interest loans to formerly incarcerated individuals, and has served as the president of the Charlottesville Albemarle Bar Association. At the law school, Lorish founded the Federal Criminal Sentence Reduction Clinic and has been a lecturer for the school’s criminal justice reform seminar.
“As a public defender, we don’t get to choose our clients. We represent whoever the court tells us to represent, and we make the best arguments we can, but it typically only impacts the life of that one person,” Lorish says. “[That’s] still incredibly significant and important work. [But] I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to apply and interpret the law in ways that will impact people across the commonwealth.”
On being the first judge from Charlottesville to be elected to the Court of Appeals, Lorish says she is excited to represent this part of Virginia but also emphasized the diversity of the whole slate of new judges the General Assembly named to the court.
“I’m eager to do my best to represent this part of the state, although ultimately I think the other aspects of diversity are also really important as well. Racial and ethnic diversity and diversity of background and experience is also really significant,” says Lorish. “Collectively, I think that the group that is coming on to the court has a lot of those aspects of diversity.”
Crystal Shin, an associate professor of law, general faculty, and director of the Holistic Juvenile Defense Clinic at UVA, says Lorish will be a welcome addition to the Court of Appeals due to her background and expertise in public interest law.
“It is significant to have someone with Lisa’s background and experience on the court,” says Shin. “In the past, it was much more common for openings at the trial court or the appellate court level to be filled with former prosecutors. It is important to have former public defenders and defense attorneys be appointed to the bench, too.”
Speaking about the broader changes to the court, Shin says the expansion in the court’s jurisdiction to guarantee the right to an appeal for all Virginians is long overdue.
“Previously, parties had to petition an appellate court…for the right to appeal, and the court granted appeals at its discretion,” says Shin. “Virginia was the only state in the nation without a right of appeal from civil judgments and criminal convictions.”
Sally Hudson, Charlottesville’s Democratic representative to the House of Delegates, says Republican accusations that Democrats are court-packing are unfounded. The House of Delegates voted along party lines to elect Lorish and the other judges to the Court of Appeals, while a few Republicans in the state Senate joined all of the Democratic members in electing the new judges.
“I wish that Richmond had a history of more bipartisan cooperation, [but] it is true that Republicans have run judicial appointments for a very long time in Virginia,” says Hudson. “And so the appointment of judges who share the values of the current majority is long overdue. Now that some of that balance has been restored, it would be great to see bipartisan cooperation going forward as future judges are appointed.”
Hudson says Lorish ultimately stood out among the dozens of judges considered during the selection process due to her expertise and legal background.
“Everyone I spoke to was blown away by Lisa Lorish in the vetting process,” Hudson says. “It just took a General Assembly that would even give a female public defender like her a fair hearing for her to shine in the role that she so richly deserved.”
State Senator Creigh Deeds wants some of Virginia’s $4.3 billion in relief funds to go toward funding for state parks, mental health services, and community colleges. Supplied photo.
Virginia received $4.3 billion in federal relief funds as part of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan package Congress passed earlier this year. That sounds like lot of dough, but this spring, state agencies had a chance to submit requests for how the money might be spent. Those agencies’ requests totaled $18 billion.
The General Assembly convened in Richmond August 2 for a special session to figure out how to break down the state’s stack of federal cash. The assembly will also confirm eight judicial appointments in a historic expansion of the Court of Appeals.
Governor Ralph Northam and the majority-Democrat legislature have already outlined several priorities for the sizable surplus, including devoting $700 million to the expansion of broadband internet access in rural Virginia, $353 million to support small businesses still struggling from the pandemic, nearly $1 billion to replenish the state’s unemployment trust fund, and $250 million for overhauling HVAC systems in schools across the commonwealth. Northam’s proposed budget also calls for at least $800 million of the funds to be set aside for some time in the next three years.
During this special session, the Democratic chairs of the House of Delegates Appropriations Committee and Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee will not be considering any amendments to the proposed budget bill, a procedural decision that they say will allow the state to get money where it needs to be as quickly as possible.
Democratic state Senator Creigh Deeds, who represents Charlottesville and part of Albemarle County, says he supports the priorities the governor has outlined. Deeds has a few items of his own that he expects to make the final cut as well, including funding for state parks and recreation facilities, mental health services, and the Virginia community college system.
More specifically, Deeds says he would like to see funding for capital improvement projects and employee pay increases and bonuses at state mental health facilities and hospitals across the commonwealth.
Deeds has been a dogged advocate for increasing mental health funding in recent years. In the last few weeks, that cause has taken on even more urgency. Earlier this month, the state halted admissions at five of its eight mental health facilities, citing an “immediate crisis” as more than 100 employees resigned.
“We’ve got to make sure that we have the workforce that will provide for people who are struggling with mental illness,” he says. “It’s going to take a lot of work during the special session, when we’re dealing with one-time money.”
The currently proposed budget includes $50 million for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to fund improvement projects for ventilation, water, and sewer systems at state behavioral health facilities, $45 million for bonuses for direct-care staff at state facilities, $10 million for the ongoing expansion of “community-based crisis services,” and $1 million to be allocated to the Department of Criminal Justice Services to supply resources for crisis intervention team training to law-enforcement officers and dispatchers.
Deeds is also in favor of setting aside a significant chunk of funding for the next few years, something that will be essential for addressing various issues presented by the ongoing pandemic.
“We’re not through with the pandemic yet,” he says. “There’s still so many people unvaccinated, there’s still flare-ups around the state and around the country with respect to COVID-19. We’re doing the prudent thing and holding on to some of that money in case we need to do something between now and 2024.”
Courting new judges
During the session, the General Assembly will also officially increase the size of Virginia’s Court of Appeals from 11 judges to 17, following a bill passed earlier this year that expanded both the size and jurisdiction of Virginia’s second-highest court.
Deeds, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he and other committee members hope the appointments make the court more representative of the commonwealth.
“We want to make sure that they accurately reflect the diversity of the commonwealth,” says the veteran lawmaker. “Diversity of practices—people with different backgrounds who come from different areas of law practice. That they look like Virginia, [and] that they represent racial diversity. And then that they also represent geographic diversity in that they come from different parts of the commonwealth.”
More than 80 applicants are vying for the eight open seats on the court, most of whom are trial judges from across the state, according to Deeds. He adds that one applicant who is under consideration is currently a Charlottesville-area judge.
The addition of six new judges to the court represents a historic shift in the role and jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals, as it will now oversee appeals for all types of criminal, commercial, and civil cases, and anyone convicted of a crime in Virginia will have an automatic right to appeal to the expanded court.
“We have a chance to remake the face of justice in Virginia, It’s a very significant move,” says Deeds. “We’re remaking the availability of justice for people all over the commonwealth.”
From left to right: Carl Brown, Brian Pinkston, Juandiego Wade. Photo: File photos
By Geremia di Maro
Charlottesville’s government faces a wide array of big issues: A housing crisis. Ongoing criminal justice system inequities. A bureaucracy that’s had difficulty getting on the same page.
This summer, three candidates are competing in the Democratic primary in hopes of securing the party’s nominations to run for two contested seats on the Charlottesville City Council in the November general election. Juandiego Wade is a member of the Charlottesville School Board and chair of the Board of Directors for United Way of Greater Charlottesville; Carl Brown is a lifelong city native with a background in youth mentorship, consulting, and nonprofit work, and Brian Pinkston is a UVA project manager with a Ph.D. in philosophy.
In the fall, the two winners will run against independents Mayor Nikuyah Walker and entrepreneur Yasmine Washington.
Juandiego Wade
How would you address Charlottesville’s housing crisis and the rising cost of living in the city?
My position on affordable housing is that you have to take a multi-pronged approach. You have to continue to support nonprofits, like Habitat for Humanity and AHIP [Albemarle Home Improvement Program], which are out there building homes or fixing up homes to allow people to stay.
One of the things that I would do is to get the localities to collaborate more. Charlottesville is doing most of the pulling, and we can’t do it alone. Additionally, the University of Virginia needs to have a role in this, and I think that they have, with the announcement that they’re going to be building some affordable housing I think over the next 10 years or so.
What is the role of UVA in ensuring affordable living conditions in the city?
Transportation is vital. I did transportation planning for [Albemarle] County for 20 years. Housing is so expensive here that many of the lower-wage workers have to commute in. But all that causes congestion on the roads. You need to provide more alternative transportation, whether it’s free bikes, preferential parking if you carpool, incentives if someone walks to work. And you also need to work with VDOT, the county, and the city.
What changes would you make to the city’s criminal justice system and system of law enforcement?
I am for accountability, not for micromanagement. I think that there is definitely a need to bridge the gap between the police department and particularly for communities of color that I believe was widened after the Unite the Right rally.
The police can do more things like community policing, and getting to know the residents outside of emergencies. And I think that the community realizes this is a very difficult job that police officers have. One of the things that I would do if I’m elected is just to have some real, honest conversations and say, “It’s okay to disagree.”
What role do you think the city’s Police Civilian Review Board should play in ensuring accountability for law enforcement?
I think that we need to have the Civilian Review Board. I think that they need to have the power to review complaints, and that they need to have a diverse and wide range of representatives on that committee. I just don’t want the CRB to be telling the officer or the police chief, “We need to do A, B, and C.”
If elected to council, what would be your top priority upon assuming office?
Criminal justice reform, affordable housing, continuous support, public education, economic development, and climate justice are what I would focus on if I’m elected. We, as councilpersons, would have to be rowing in the same direction, and I think it is vital to get to know them.
What are your thoughts on the function of City Council in recent years?
I understand that people are very passionate about whatever issues that they’re talking about, and I don’t want to quell that in any form or fashion. All that I ask of everyone is that we respect everyone’s opinion. I think that that will go a long way. I think that we all love and care for the city and want what’s best for it, and with that foundation, we can move forward.
Carl Brown
How would you address Charlottesville’s housing crisis and the rising cost of living in the city?
I’ve been working in the [city’s] public housing, and I think, more than anything, we need to be able to provide them with resources and support within their community. Hubs where youth are able to excel in the classroom, or have that opportunity within their community. Zoning is going to play a major part, but I think that’s another conversation.
What is the role of UVA in ensuring affordable living conditions in the city?
I see UVA as a major player in this. I think creating incentives for our public schools and things of that nature to connect with UVA—those kinds of things haven’t been done before. I currently have UVA students from Charlottesville that I support and work with, and so I know that there are different things that can be done in this community.
What changes would you make to the city’s criminal justice system and system of law enforcement?
[I hope to have] programming in the jails that’s going to be more catered to less incarceration, which is what we’ve been working on by providing more technical and vocational training and by being more supportive.
De-escalation training has been something that’s been major. So when I see the budget breakdown, that’s what I’m really looking for. And if you don’t have that, that’s something that should be incorporated. I am totally for looking at [the police budget] and reallocating money to those areas in need.
What role do you think the city’s Police Civilian Review Board should play in ensuring accountability for law enforcement misconduct?
I think it needs to be a little more representative and a little more balanced. I think they’re going in the right direction. There are a lot of people in this community who have been working in that entity for a long time. I think it’s a work in progress, but I think it’s going in the right direction.
What would be your top priority upon assuming office?
The most important aspects from my standpoint are leadership, trust, respect, creativity, and excellence. I’m going to bring that to the table. This is not a situation where my aspirations are to be a politician. The direction the city needs to go in is one where we have stability, accountability, and transparency. Individuals from the community suggested that I do this for the good of the community. So I’m not doing it for me—this is much bigger than me.
What are your thoughts on the function of City Council in recent years?
My personality as a whole, I can be very straightforward. But my objective is to make City Council meetings boring when you come in, because we’re doing the work. You have to have that commitment. Coming from coaching sports teams, I understand what that brings. I’m not coming in to dominate, I’m coming in to be a part of it.
Brian Pinkston
If elected to council, how would you address Charlottesville’s housing crisis and the rising cost of living in the city?
It’s affordability up and down the scale. The super rich don’t have to worry about finding a place to live, but the rest of us do—even folks who make a good salary like myself. We’ve considered moving, for various reasons, but it’s a fraught proposition, particularly if you want to stay in the city.
Then when you include the factor of equity, and the glaring inequities of the past like redlining, how the zoning that we have reflects specifically racist covenants, and then the lack of investment over decades—now we’re faced with a really significant crisis. Then you add to the fact that you’ve got a world-class institution here that’s going to continue to be this magnetic pole for folks from all over the world, and the university can pay people enough to live here, so it’s a very complicated problem.
Now we’re getting into the [Comprehensive Plan] land-use map and zoning changes, and that’s where the rubber meets the road. We should start seeing these things like the land-use map and Comprehensive Plan as living documents as much as possible.
What changes would you make to the city’s criminal justice system and system of law enforcement?
I’m for reforming the police, or transforming, or whatever verb we want to use…I think that the high level feedback that we got last summer, with the protests after Mr. George Floyd died, really needs to be taken on board. Particularly in a Southern city like this with a history of racism in general.
I support the Police Civilian Review Board—I think it should have teeth—understanding that the General Assembly has [expanded its possible powers] due to laws that were recently changed.
I want to err on the side of transparency. I want to err on the side of us being really clear about what’s in the police budget. I think that knowing what the police are tasked to do is very much within our rights as citizens. I would love to see some of the services that police are paid for put over to community services for Region Ten.
And it’s important that we listen to actual persons of color that live in Tonsler precinct or live in some of these housing projects. I have a young Black man on my campaign helping me, and I asked him what he thinks, and he said, “Well, we need the police. We want police in certain places, and at certain times.” I think it’s important that we listen to the people actually affected, and not just do progressive wish fulfillment.
What would be your top priority upon assuming office?
The main thing I want to do is inject—people don’t like the word civility—but a level of collegiality into the council. I’m grateful to the current mayor for shining a strong light on our city’s past, and ways in which we thought we were so great but really weren’t. I think that she’s done an admirable job in that. I do think she’s struggled, for whatever reason, to create the positive change that she’s wanted, and I’m hopeful that the next council can do that.
What are your thoughts on the function of City Council in recent years?
The City Council needs to function well. This turmoil we have on council spills over to social media, which has been really disruptive. It affects actual operations, because people may or may not want to work for a city that has that level of instability at the top. I want to [build] strong working relationships on council, so that people who work for the city know that we’re a credible body, that we’re going to make decisions to stick with them, that we care for them and care for their careers.
On the money
In May, The New York Times asked each candidate for mayor of New York City to tell it, from memory, the median sales price for a home in Brooklyn. The guesses ranged widely, and some candidates wound up with egg on their face. Investment banker Ray McGuire said “It’s got to be somewhere in the $80,000 to $90,000 range.” Maya Wiley, a former aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio, said $1.8 million. The correct answer is $900,000.
With rising real estate prices an important topic in town, we put the same question to our council candidates. No googling allowed: What is the median home price in Charlottesville?
Juandiego Wade: “I would say it’s about $300,000 or $400,000. A couple of weeks ago there was only one house on the market under $250,000.”
Carl Brown: “Probably around $360,000.”
Brian Pinkston: “The median home price in Charlottesville is about $375,000. I know that because my home is worth about that much.”
The correct answer: In the first quarter of 2021, the median home sale price in the City of Charlottesville was $397,000, according to the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors. Congrats, all—that’s a much better showing than the New Yorkers.
Several area residents waited to vote outside the Charlottesville City Hall Annex on Monday.
PC: Staff photo
By Geremia Di Maro
There’s a line outside the City Hall Annex. Volunteers wearing cardboard posters of ballots circle cheerfully. This year, election season started early.
In Charlottesville, as of October 26, about 14,500 people have voted—a huge increase from the 3,394 total absentee ballots cast in 2016. Roughly 33,000 ballots have been cast this year in Albemarle County, where just 7,317 absentee ballots were cast in 2016. Two million Virginians, and more than 60 million Americans, have already pulled the polling lever.
“In Virginia, this was always going to be a very high-turnout election year,” says Miles Coleman, associate editor for Sabato’s Crystal Ball at UVA’s Center for Politics. “I think we saw some evidence of that even if you look at some of the off years—when Governor [Ralph] Northam was first elected in 2017—the turnout in northern Virginia really was much more than we were used to seeing.”
Virginia is among several states across the country that have sought to make early voting easier during the COVID-19 pandemic. The commonwealth has removed the requirement that mail-in ballots be signed by a witness, and allowed all voters to take advantage of curbside voting, for example. Other initiatives to make voting easier originated in the Democrat-controlled General Assembly this year. The legislature extended the deadline for when absentee ballots can be accepted and lifted long-standing restrictions on absentee voting, which required voters to claim one of several listed excuses to be eligible to vote early.
In Charlottesville, an average of 325 to 400 voters per day have cast their ballots in-person at the City Hall Annex since early voting began, according to Melissa Morton, Charlottesville’s director of elections and general registrar. Morton says the average wait time to vote in-person has been between 15 and 30 minutes, but adds that Fridays have been especially busy, with wait times as long as 45 to 75 minutes.
“We only had two voters who refused to wear masks,” says Morton. “Other voters, and our staff, offered the person a mask but he refused. After the voter voted, our staff disinfected the voting room.”
As of October 24, the City’s Walker Precinct, which makes up the northernmost portion of Charlottesville, was leading in early voter turnout with 2,222 ballots cast. The Venable and Buford precincts, where many off-Grounds UVA students reside, have seen the lowest turnout totals so far with 732 and 879 ballots cast, respectively. This trend generally mirrors the early voter pattern of 2016, although significantly more early votes have been cast across all precincts in Charlottesville this year.
Meanwhile, in Albemarle County, General Registrar of Voters Jake Washburne says early voting turnout so far has represented “a paradigm shift in voting behavior” for the County. Six-hundred to 850 voters have turned out each day to vote in-person at the 5th Street County Office Building. Washburne adds that most people have so far only had to wait five or 10 minutes to cast their ballots in-person.
“Even if the pandemic had not struck, I think we would’ve seen a significant increase in the number of people who would early vote [this year],” says Washburne. “But come COVID, that was like the one-two punch—I think a whole lot of people are concerned about going to a crowded polling place on Election Day with the virus still about.”
One caveat to the voting explosion is that new-voter registrations have declined sharply in Albemarle County compared to previous cycles. Washburne says that in 2016, 3,500 voters registered in the county between August and the registration deadline. That same time frame this year has seen just 1,800 new registrants. Washburne speculates that this decline, which has been especially notable in the precincts near the university, is the result of pandemic-hampered voter registration efforts and students re-registering to vote in their hometowns if they are taking online classes from home.
Nonetheless, voter registration and get-out-the-vote activism has continued on Grounds, says Kiera Goddu, a UVA fourth-year and president of the University Democrats.
“I’ve been taking one first-year [student] at a time—masked and windows down—to the Albemarle registrar’s office, and there have been other drivers who’ve been doing the Charlottesville registrar’s office so that students can vote early in-person and just kind of have it checked off,” says Goddu. “Especially during that period when [COVID-19] cases were at their worst at UVA, and students were most panicked that they wouldn’t be able to stay in their [on-Grounds] housing situation.”
Goddu says the University Democrats have also hosted limited in-person voter registration events twice a week since September. Setting up camp outside the Observatory Hill dining hall, the group registered almost 100 new voters in a single day just before the registration deadline earlier this month.
It’s hard to be sure what all this early voting will mean for election outcomes. Although preliminary estimates show that the surge in early voting across the country may favor Democrats, Coleman says he’d “be cautious [about] reading too much into the early vote.”
“It’s sort of the same way on election night—you don’t want to project a result when there’s only a small fraction of the vote that’s in,” he says.
“The Democrats, of course, have been telling their voters to vote earlier. Contrast that to Trump, who’s very, shall we say, skeptical of the early vote,” says Coleman. “What if it’s a rainy day? What if the virus gets much worse this next week before Election Day? So the Republicans, specifically Trump in encouraging his voters to wait, it could pay off, but it’s also a very risky strategy.”
In Virginia, early voting will continue through Saturday, October 31. On Election Day, polls open at 6am and close at 7pm.
Virginia’s COVIDWISE app uses Bluetooth to anonymously track the spread of the virus.
By Geremia Di Maro
As the community searches for answers to the COVID pandemic, both the Commonwealth of Virginia and UVA have rolled out apps designed to suppress the spread of the virus. While state officials are excited about the state app’s ability to track the disease, UVA’s app—which cost a similar amount to develop—merely encourages users to evaluate their own symptoms.
Almost two months after launching, the Virginia Department of Health’s COVIDWISE app—the nation’s first COVID-19 exposure-notification app for iPhone and Android devices—is slated to reach an important milestone of 600,000 downloads in the commonwealth, as thousands of Virginians continue to download the app each day. Currently, about 13.2 percent of the state’s population has the app on their phones.
COVIDWISE is among a growing list of similar exposure-notification apps in the U.S. The app trades randomly generated IDs between cell phones via Bluetooth connection, without draining battery or accessing location data. Then the app compares the IDs the phone has received to a statewide database of IDs associated with positive COVID-19 test results. If an app user tests positive. and inputs that test in the app, any other app user who has been near the positive case will then be notified.
“There is no GPS or other location data at all, it doesn’t matter where geographically you were,” says Andrew Larimer, an engineer with Spring ML, who helped develop COVIDWISE and is also assisting in the development of a similar app in North Carolina. “The only thing that matters, from the app’s perspective, is whether you were nearby someone else who has gone on to test positive for COVID 19…This framework was designed to take people’s privacy concerns very seriously, and avoid any kind of location tracking.”
As of September 28, 225 positive cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed via COVIDWISE.
“We don’t collect location data, we don’t collect any sort of personal identifying information,” says Jeff Stover, the executive advisor to the Virginia Department of Health commissioner. “The issue is for any given state, because it’s an anonymous process, it’s very difficult to link back to anything and show any kind of correlation …We understand that this creates data limitations for some people who would like to do more, but we’re serious about protecting patient privacy and just privacy in general.”
However, Stover cited a recently published study by Oxford University examining the potential for exposure-notification apps to reduce the rate of infection and the subsequent number of deaths caused by COVID-19 in a given area, based on an analysis of app usage and case statistics in Washington state. According to the study’s findings, “a well-staffed manual contact tracing workforce combined with 15 percent uptake of an exposure notification system could reduce infections [from COVID-19] by 15 percent and deaths by 11percent.”
Stover says that, with more Virginians downloading COVIDWISE each day, the state expects to reach that 15 percent threshold in the next few weeks. He also emphasizes that there are still few concrete examples and metrics to hold COVIDWISE up to, since Virginia was the first U.S. state to employ exposure-notification technology in earnest.
“Obviously, the more downloads there are, the greater the impact,” Stover says. “But because we were the first state out of the gate, it’s very difficult—it’s as if we’re running a race by ourselves, and we can’t really tell if we’re running fast or slow, or somewhere in between. So there’s no one to compare ourselves to.”
Although not nearly as complex or as involved as the COVIDWISE app, UVA has also rolled out its own app—Hoos Health Check—for students, faculty, and staff to use to combat the spread of COVID-19 on Grounds and in Charlottesville.
Designed through a partnership between the university and Charlottesville app developer WillowTree, Hoos Health Check is meant to work alongside and with COVIDWISE. UVA’s app does not share or collect data like an exposure-notification app, but encourages users to also download COVIDWISE, according to university spokesperson Brian Coy. However, Hoos Health Check does require users to sign in to the app via their university-affiliated account.
Hoos Health Check cost $300,000 to develop, and Coy notes that this figure includes additional features embedded within the app, but did not specify what they were. By comparison, COVIDWISE cost $229,000 in CARES Act funds to develop and has a maintenance budget of $29,000.
“The primary purpose of Hoos Health Check is to prompt users to evaluate their own health and symptoms every day before coming to Grounds,” says Coy, “as a means of helping them make the decision to stay home and away from other members of the community in the event they are feeling ill (and thus, potentially infected with COVID-19).”
The app reminds users daily to complete the symptom check, although it is only required if a student or employee plans to be physically present on Grounds on a given day. If a user reports no symptoms (cough, shortness of breath, fever, muscle pain, loss of smell or taste, etc.), he is presented with a set of guidelines for preventing the spread of COVID-19, including wearing a mask in the presence of others, maintaining social distancing, and encouraging others to also follow public health guidelines.
If a user indicates that he’s feeling sick, the app “prompts him to contact student health or his health-care provider for additional screening,” Coy says. It doesn’t enter the symptoms in any database or automatically communicate with any public health authorities.
Coy says more than 27,000 downloads of Hoos Health Check have taken place since its launch in early August, adding that the app sees greater than 80 percent daily usage across the university community.
COVIDWISE is free to download on Apple’s app store or the Android store.
