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SLU Trustee Joins in to Help With Back-to-School COVID-19 Testing

by Maggie Rotermund on 01/28/2021
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01/28/2021

As it did in the fall, Saint Louis University is testing all residential students for COVID-19 before they move back into campus residence halls and apartments. 

COVID-19

SLU Trustee Trudy Busch Valentine (back right) joined students in the Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing to help with COVID-19 testing. Submitted photo.

The testers included students at the Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing, and for two days, Trudy Busch Valentine herself. The SLU trustee and namesake of the School of Nursing volunteered her time Jan. 26-27 to help test students.

“I enjoyed working with the wonderful faculty and the passionate, compassionate and extremely capable nursing students in the accelerated master’s in nursing program,” she said. 

Busch Valentine is a 1980 graduate of SLU’s School of Nursing and has kept her license up to date. She wanted to support the University’s efforts with testing and vaccine distribution. 

“I loved seeing all the students coming back,” Busch Valentine said. “I loved being kind to them – some had hard, snowy trips and some were worried about all the work a new semester brings.”

She noted that most of the Billikens she encountered were ready to hit the ground running for the spring semester.

Terri Rebmann, Ph.D., special assistant to the President, said approximately 2,700 students were tested at Simon Rec Center before the semester began. She said students reported a smooth testing experience.

“It went a lot faster than it did in the fall,” Rebmann said. “We had no long lines and the whole process moved a bit faster.”

Volunteer efforts like Busch Valentine’s and other faculty, staff and students in the clinical sciences made it possible for commuter students to also get tested before the semester started.

In a message to students Thursday, President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D., noted that in addition to continued testing, masks, safe social distancing measures and remembering to think of others in the spirit of OneSLU would help create a successful spring semester for the entire community. 

“A COVID test is a snapshot in time,” Rebmann said. “We need everyone to continue to mask up and continue to follow protocols.”