{Background: The progress of the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacts the health of communities around the world, with unique impacts on colleges and universities. Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by asymptomatic people is thought to be the underlying cause of a large proportion of new infections. However, the local prevalence of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2 is influenced by local public health restrictions and the community setting. Objectives: This study has three main objectives. First, we looked to establish the prevalence of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection on a university campus in California. Second, we sought to assess the changes in viral prevalence associated with the shifting community conditions related to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Third, we aimed to compare the performance of CRISPR- and PCR-based assays for large-scale virus surveillance sampling in COVID-19 asymptomatic persons. Methods: We enrolled 1,808 asymptomatic persons for self-collection of oropharyngeal (OP) samples to undergo SARS-CoV-2 testing. We compared viral prevalence in samples obtained in two time periods: May 28th-June 11th; June 23rd-July 2nd. We detected viral genomes in these samples using two assays: CREST, a CRISPR-based method recently developed at UCSB, and the RT-qPCR test recommended by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Results: Of the 1,808 participants, 1,805 were affiliates of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and 1,306 were students. None of the tests performed on the 732 samples collected between late May to early June were positive. In contrast, tests performed on the 1076 samples collected between late June to early July, revealed nine positive cases. This change in prevalence met statistical significance