Colleen Hammond | News Editor & Managing Editor
For the past week, the Starbucks in the Student Union has been closed, leaving many students wondering why.
“Due to a positive COVID-19 case among one of the Parkhurst employees working in the Starbucks, the store temporarily closed to allow the employees to quarantine for the appropriate amount of time and for the store to be cleaned thoroughly prior to re-opening,” said Gabriel Welsch, vice president of marketing and communications.
Student and Starbucks employee, Madeline Bonner, stated that Starbucks employees are not subject to any regular COVID-19 testing or random testing, and that even after the positive case was reported, she did not have to get tested.
Bonner stated that she did not come up in the contact tracing efforts and therefore did not have to get tested.
“I don’t believe customers were formally notified about the reason for Starbucks closing; however, I think it was mostly assumed,” Bonner said.
This closure and positive case came in the same week that Duquesne administration praised students, staff and faculty for their efforts to combat the virus.
“Last week, the university conducted COVID-19 tests for 724 randomly selected students and employees who are regularly physically present on campus this fall. The results of this testing are as follows: 719 tests were tested by Quest. 719 tests were negative,” said the statement signed by Provost David Dausey and senior vice president of student Doug Frizzell among others.
Starbucks is set to re-open this Friday, Sept. 25 for normal operating hours.
