With mandatory COVID-19 testing complete for all BYU students, a new season of randomized testing is coming into full swing. Despite BYU’s randomized selection process proving highly effective this past week, the administration has made a sudden decision to alter it completely. Starting Monday, their new approach will be modeled after the reaping system in the hit teen-dystopian novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Here’s how reports say it will work: Every Tuesday starting February 2nd, the musical number at devotional will be replaced with a public reaping. Cosmo the Cougar will stand at the podium and dip his paw into a large glass chalice filled with student names on slips of paper. The chosen slips will then be read publicly and those selected students will be obligated to get tested for COVID-19 within the next seven days, unless another student courageously volunteers to be tested in their place.                            

Every student’s name will be automatically entered into Cosmo’s reaping chalice one time, but that’s only the beginning. Students could opt to have their name put in multiple times. This new system certainly presents a dicey choice- the University offers one point of extra credit for any class, but only at the expense of having one’s name entered into the chalice one more time. 

Student attitudes on the new reaping system vary widely. Pete Renshaw, a sophomore who disclosed he has already entered his name into Cosmo’s chalice 53 times, shared his thoughts:

“I know I’m playing with fire, but my mom said she’d cut me off financially if I fail OChem a 3rd semester in a row. Think about it, what would you do?”

While some are taking advantage of the new extra credit opportunity, others are confused and disturbed by the new process. Cassie Evans, a senior majoring in philosophy, offered a different perspective.

“I just find the whole Cosmo publicly choosing names out of a huge chalice thing weird and unnecessary. And wasn’t The Hunger Games a thing like… nine years ago?

Some students suspect that the change was a direct result of BYU Vice President Steven Hafen finishing The Hunger Games for the first time over the weekend, as evidenced by the large volume of tweets he has recently been posting in favor the 2012 sensation, many of which present a “Team Gale” following.

Despite critiques, VP Hafen says that his “only regret is not thinking of this sooner”. His latest tweet expresses the sentiment that the odds be ever in our favor.