The COVID-19 Mandate Question

To be, or not to be, that is the question.” Sorry for the Shakespeare reference, but Hamlet’s soliloquy has application to every campus this year: Should campuses mandate COVID vaccinations for students? For faculty and staff (employees)?

As this debate wages on, I’ve begun daydreaming in my endless Zoom meetings and webinars. I’m having flashbacks of my college literature lectures on how Shakespeare creates a balance with the first six words that Hamlet utters. As Hamlet ponders life and death, he asks which of the two alternatives is nobler, whether to suffer the cruelties of fate silently or to put up a fight against the misfortunes of life that afflict one. This soliloquy’s dramatic purpose is to explain Hamlet’s procrastination in carrying out his purpose, and the mental torture and anguish Hamlet feels if he does not.

As we grapple with the COVID-19 vaccination question, ought we remain steadfastly committed to our purpose to keep our campuses safe? Should we mandate the COVID vaccines as a means to assure our communities? If we don’t, what will happen? Of what great consequence?

The question to mandate the vaccine dominates college plans to shift back from remote to in-person instruction and from remote working to hybrid or fully on campus. Some colleges have held vaccination clinics to get students and employees immunized before they leave for the summer. Many colleges now see that the only way to return to normal and get back to campus is through a required vaccination program as the answer. The goal is to help build confidence that students, faculty and staff will be safe on campus.

I am not a lawyer, and I am not making a legal argument. But we do look to federal, state, and local authorities and the law--Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC)--for guidance to inform our decision-making.

First, protecting the privacy rights of our students and employees is of the utmost importance. We treat COVID-19 testing, temperature screening results, reports of symptoms, contact tracing, vaccination, or declinations as confidential medical records stored separately under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

But what happens to the prescreening for COVID-19 when the benefits diminish as rates of vaccination increase? Our campus policies need to be consistent and communicated clearly. Some states mandate temperature screening before work shifts, while the CDC recommends the continued utilization of prescreening.

With OSHA in mind, we have a duty to keep our communities free of recognized hazards, and we can consider the COVID-19 virus a danger or a risk to our communities. In so doing, if we adopt a policy that mandates all students and employees must receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the policy must have express medical and religious exemptions. The medical exemption stems from the ADA, which prohibits discrimination against individual medical conditions and requires us to provide individuals with health conditions a “reasonable accommodation.” The religious exemption is protected by The Civil Rights Act of 1964. If you choose to mandate vaccines as a condition of employment, adverse reactions are OSHA recordable events.

Other questions to work out if you decide to mandate. Is there a blanket policy that all employees need to work regardless of vaccination status? Is letting the employee work from home a “reasonable accommodation”? What accommodations will you allow for students? If students don’t comply, are they barred from residence, classes, or entirely from campus? Will you provide paid time off for employees to receive and recover from the vaccine?

One last Hamlet reference. Whatever you decide to do, there will be “slings and arrows” of those who believe mandating the vaccine is an assault on their liberties and others who will think you haven’t done enough to keep them safe if you don’t.

Please keep a watchful eye on the Chronicle’s “List of Colleges That Will Require Students or Employee to Be Vaccinated Against COVID-19.” Often our best lessons are those we learn from our sister institutions.

I wish you well as you grapple with these questions on your campus, and I am confident you will find the best solution to keep your community safe. Be well.