TCNJ

17 WINTER 2021 The early responders It was December 2019, nearly three months before TCNJ shut down campus because of COVID-19, that Janice Vermeychuk began to worry. As the director of student health services, she stays up to date on health issues that could inundate large, close-quarter populations. Some of her colleagues in China began sharing messages about the virus and its impact on the other side of the globe. "I knew the virus was on its way here," Vermeychuk says. She began to mentally prepare for what a viral outbreak might look like and worked with the New Jersey Department of Health and TCNJ's Critical Emergency Response Team to establish guidelines for how the college would operate. Vermeychuk teamed up with Rafia Siddiq, strategic health and wellness specialist, who created and implemented the college's contact tracing program — something that didn't exist just 11 months ago — and rolled out health checks for students and staff through the Roar app. In the fall, about 1,200 individuals completed health checks daily, and that number is expected to ramp up this spring. Siddiq believes the collaboration among the TCNJ community is what will make the health plans successful. "The system runs more smoothly having everyone work together," Siddiq says. The focus now is on COVID-19 testing and the administration of vaccines. Vermeychuk anticipates about 1,000 students will be tested per day, and Student Health Services is enrolled as a CDC COVID-19 vaccine program provider. "How we live and work has been changed, probably forever," Vermeychuk says. "But with vaccines coming, we are on our way." Rafia Siddiq (left) and Janice Vermeychuk

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