Ball State University will require students be tested for COVID-19 when they return in January for the spring semester.

Several schools like Indiana University and Purdue required students arriving on campus this past fall to be tested for coronavirus.  But Ball State was not one of them.  Instead, it allowed students to “self-certify” they had tested negative or quarantined safely before moving to Muncie.

In an email to students, families, and the campus, Vice President of Student Affairs Ro-Anne Royer Engle says revised guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has prompted the required tests.

Ball State says students will need to upload a image of a COVID-19 test to an online portal within seven days of arriving on campus – and they’ll need to quarantine between their test and returning.  Students testing positive are required to isolate for at least 10 days and must be “fever free” for 24 hours without medication to return to campus.

Ball State students are planning to leave for Thanksgiving and finish the last three weeks of this semester’s classes online.  They will return on January 19 to a semester shortened by a week without a spring break.