DANE COUNTY
Joe Parisi
County Executive

September 9, 2020
Tommy Thompson
President, University of Wisconsin System
Rebecca Blank
Chancellor, University of Wisconsin Madison
Dear President Thompson and Chancellor Blank:
I am writing to express my deep concern with the recent increase in cases of Covid-19 on the
University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. In short order we have all reached a critical juncture in
our community’s work to fight the spread of illness. UW-Madison’s nearly 1,000 cases are resulting
in record numbers for our county. New daily infections are the highest they’ve been since the start
of this pandemic. New cases in the past few days are running at least five times what they were in
late August. Since September 1st, at least 74% of Dane County’s new Covid positive cases were from
the UW. These cases stemming from campus increase the probability of community spread and
greater demands on our health care system in advance of flu season. According to initial contact
tracing from Public Health Madison/Dane County, as of today there are at least 46 separate
outbreaks affiliated with the UW-Madison.
The rapid increase in positive cases over the past week comes after Dane County had dramatically
lowered caseloads through aggressive public health orders aimed at pushing down numbers and
rates of infection. We are an interconnected community. The University is an integral piece of our
identity as students and staff live, work, and recreate here. Given that, the UW’s experience with
Covid-19 stands to have a profound effect on the health of the greater Dane County community.
Given that, I’m respectfully asking the University of Wisconsin-Madison consider the following
actions in short order:
1. Require undergraduates living in residence halls to move back home for the rest of this
semester. Undergrads could return to their respective communities and quarantine there
for 14 days to minimize new spread in their hometowns. The University could offer online
learning for these students to participate in from their private homes. Given the nature of
how Covid-19 spreads in group settings, reducing numbers in residence halls will help lower
the risk of additional spread. If the UW decides against this, I respectfully encourage you to
increase university staffing to support student compliance with local public health and UW
directives on and off campus.
City-County Building, Room 421, 210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, Madison, Wisconsin 53703
PH 608/266-4114
FAX 608/266-2643
TDD Call WI Relay 711

 2. Establish more on-campus quarantine facilities. As positive cases continue, sending people
with Covid-19 back into group living situations off campus only perpetuates the spread of
illness. You need to support additional quarantine centers especially for students living in
off-campus housing.
3. Please triple the number of UW Madison contact tracers within the next 30 days. While I
appreciate the commitment and promise of UW Madison to support contact tracing for UW
Madison students, the recent surge of positive cases already far overwhelmed capacity the
UW had put in place to follow up on cases. Timely and effective contact tracing is critical
for isolation. Dane County will soon have over 100 contact tracers to support what we
anticipate could be a challenging fall season for Covid. Public Health has continued to add
staff as this pandemic has evolved. It’s clear the University needs to increase its capacity to
support contact tracing for students as soon as practically possible.
4. Increase testing capacity on the UW campus. For example, on 9/8 a quarter of AEC tests
were from students – the vast majority from UW. Most reported that they couldn’t get an
appointment for a test at UW because University Health Services was “booked up.” If this
pattern is sustained, this equates to at least $300,000 in daily test kit costs alone. The UW
needs to bolster its ability to conduct tests immediately.
The University made the decision to proceed with holding classes this fall despite recommendations
from local and national experts urging virtual only classes this semester. We all love our great
University and what it brings to our community. Unfortunately, given the pandemic, congregating
these students has significantly impacted the capacity of the public health system, local public
health efforts, and may impact the health of our community.
I know everything the University worked on this summer to attempt at a return to “normal” was
the result of careful thought and planning. We all want to get back to our lives as they were prior to
this pandemic. Unfortunately as we have seen across this country and other parts of the globe, this
virus willfully spreads whenever the opportunity presents. We are concerned the well-intentioned
goal of having UW open and operating as close to normally as possible will result in opportunity for
Covid-19 to spread in our community.
Sincerely,

Joe Parisi
Dane County Executive