MADISON, WI (SPECTRUM NEWS) — UW-Madison is planning to offer free coronavirus tests for students and faculty during its upcoming Fall semester.

The Fall semester will have a mix of in-person and digital learning, the tests are part of a campus-wide plan to monitor and control the coronavirus according to the University.

The university projects 6,000 tests per week. It's a mix of voluntary tests and mandatory screenings for people in residence halls.

"This gives us an ability to see over time if things are changing,” said Jonathan Temte, with the UW School of Medicine and Public Health in a statement. “It will help us determine when it might be necessary to suggest changes to campus operations.”

The tests will be processed Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory will process the tests under the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene License. That way the campus tests won't add extra work for the State Laboratory.

"It was clear we had to set up some on-campus capacity in order to meet the demands that would be made by reopening the campus and bringing back students, staff and faculty," said Norman Drinkwater, campus testing lead, in a statement. "The one that we settled on is a partnership between WSLH and WVDL, where WVDL would have the ability to establish the high-complexity testing that was required and would have the oversight of WSLH as a CLIA certified human diagnostics laboratory."

Drinkwater retired as UW-Madison vice chancellor for research and graduate education last fall and is an emeritus professor of oncology.

The University said doing in-house testing saves money versus sending them to a commercial lab.

Some students are happy to hear there will be free tests.

“I think free testing is a great idea, I think making it more open and making people aware that it's available is great, I think it's a great idea,” said Natalie Lobo, a junior at UW-Madison