By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
About 2,500 students, faculty and staff at Bowling Green State University have been granted exemptions from the university’s vaccine mandate in place for the spring semester.
Chief Health and Wellness Officer Ben Batey told the BGSU Faculty Senate that no exemptions were “outright denied,” though his office did have to reach out for further clarification on some.
That number has been steady for a while, he said, though more may be granted as new students enroll or personnel hired.
Individuals can ask for an exemption based on medical, personal conscience or religious reasons.
Faculty Senator Brent Archer pressed him on why exemptions were granted apparently so easily. That contradicted what senate was told earlier in the semester.
“There’s powers at play we have to take into account,” Batey said. They had to watch laws being proposed at both the state and federal level.
The approach taken at BGSU is similar to that taken at other state universities, Batey said.
According to numbers on the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, 73.8 percent of students have been vaccinated with 14.3 percent granted exemptions with 11.9 percent still not in compliance. Among faculty and staff, 90.4 percent are vaccinated and 6.3 percent have received exemptions, leaving 3.3 percent not in compliance.
The number of new COVID-19 cases on campus has increased again, almost doubling to 60 from 33 a week ago.
This reflects increases in Wood and Erie counties. “That’s a direct reflection of gathering around the Thanksgiving holiday,” Batey said. “I think we’re seeing that bump right now.” He added that health officials are continuing to monitor the omicron variant as well.
Batey said that with the increase in cases that there is concern about a possible shortage of testing kits. The university is trying to secure enough home testing kits for students to test themselves before returning to campus for the spring semester.
Batey emphasized that, despite a rumor to the contrary circulating among students, the mask mandate will stay in place throughout the semester. “We certainly will be starting the spring semester with the same protocols that we have right now. … Everything will look exactly the same with the mask requirements,” he said. “We will not drop that mask requirement.”
But going back to remote learning is also off the table, he said, even though the number of cases is rising. Students from kindergarten through the university need to be in classes.
In spring 2020 they were dealing with a new virus. Now so much more is known and has been developed in terms of preventing and treating the virus and more developments, including antiviral pills, are imminent.
This week’s numbers show 50 new cases among BGSU students – 37 off-campus and 13 on-campus – with six among staff and four among faculty. Five students are isolated in university housing and one is quarantined in their residence hall.
BGSU has had 728 cases – 669 students, 22 faculty, and 37 staff – since the beginning of the semester.
