GV COVID-19 campus data update

The GVSU community has had a cumulative total of 3,640 cases since Aug. 1, 2020. The university’s update for this brief was from Friday, Sept. 17.

Through testing results this past week, GVSU’s Virus Action team have so far reported 115 current active cases including two faculty members, six staff members, 14 on-campus students, 51 “off-campus Ottawa” students, 38 “off-campus Kent” students and four “off-campus other” students with active COVID-19 cases.

“Current active cases” is the count of positive cases reported to the Virus Action Team over the past ten days.  This is an estimate of those currently in isolation, assuming a ten-day symptomatic period following the reporting of a positive test result. Actual periods of isolation are specific to the individual and determined by the county health department.

Testing and Incidence: GVSU’s own testing program has performed 94,289 tests overall since August 1, 2020, for a cumulative positivity rate of 1.37% from the latest update as of last week. A total of 1,729 tests were performed over the last seven days.

“GV Surveillance” includes the GV/Spectrum administered programs of randomized testing, regular testing of high-risk groups, and invited testing of individuals connected to potential clusters. A calendar is available. “GV Total” includes surveillance testing plus all symptomatic/exposure tests administered by Spectrum.

Vaccination: GVSU encourages all students, faculty and staff to receive the COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible. All students, faculty and staff are required to be fully vaccinated by Sept.30, barring a medical or religious exemption or postponement. According to the COVID-19 data dashboard, 80% vaccination rate in the GVSU community is required to reach herd immunity and minimal virus transmission.

Currently, approximately 67% of students report being fully vaccinated, while approximately 85% of faculty and staff reports being fully vaccinated.

GV incoming class is larger, more diverse.

This fall, GVSU’s incoming class of first-time college students saw a 0.3% increase in the student body, with a total of 3,894 students, according to the GVSU enrollment snapshot for Fall 2021.

The snapshot also revealed that this year’s incoming class is one of GVSU’s most diverse.  Enrollment among African American students increased by 80%, Asian students by 27.5% percent, and the number of Hispanic/Latinx students by 31%. GVSU also welcomed 1,234 first-generation college students this fall.

GV named top midwest university by U.S. News and World Report

GVSU was ranked 27th in the midwest by U.S. News and World report out of 157 schools. The 2022 edition of the ranking assessed 1,466 U.S. bachelor’s degree-granting institutions on 17 measures of academic quality, including graduation and retention rates, financial resources and reputation.