By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Bowling Green State University students will have to be vaccinated to attend classes when the spring semester begins on Jan. 10.
The university announced the mandate, which also applies to faculty and staff, this morning (Sept. 2). It comes two days after it was announced athletes, who face a more imminent deadline, were required to be vaccinated by Oct. 15.
In a statement to the community, President Rodney Rogers said: “After dialogue with external and internal health professionals, as well as various constituencies, including leaders of student, faculty and staff governance groups, along with representatives from the BGSU Faculty Association, we expect our community to get vaccinated. COVID-19 vaccines are the most effective tool we have to fight this virus to date.
“In preparation for spring semester, BGSU is requiring students, faculty and staff to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or receive an approved exemption.”
Chief Health Officer Ben Batey said the decision to go ahead with the mandate was driven by the number of cases locally, and the impact of the Delta variant. In summer, he said, the pandemic seemed more under control, but then the variant caused an increase.
It’s a recognition that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can mutate quickly, and the best way to combat that is through vaccines. “This is a way to be proactive,” he said.
“Our ultimate goal is to provide in-person learning and activities and events for students,” Batey said. “We don’t want to jeopardize that at all.”
The decision to have the mandate effective the beginning of the spring semester was a reflection of the university’s stance in the summer that there would not be a mandate in fall.
At that time, no vaccine had received final approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Pfizer received that approval on Aug. 23.
The January deadline gives students time to get vaccinated. The university will gauge demand in determining whether it will offer clinics. Vaccines are free and are widely available the Falcon Health Center and at chain pharmacies and other locations, including the farmers market in downtown Bowling Green. The university did hold a clinic last week in the student union and will hold a clinic for athletes next week.
The spring deadline also gives people a chance to file exemptions for health or for religious reasons, and to have those considered by the university.
“These exemptions must either be medical, religious or reasons of personal conscience, and will be reviewed and approved by our Division of Health and Wellness,” Rogers said. “If a student, faculty or staff exemption is approved, they will be required to follow protocols for unvaccinated individuals regarding face coverings, quarantine and isolation and also participate in regular COVID-19 testing.”
According to first COVID-19 dashboard for the semester, 44 student and to staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 this semester. According to the university 54 percent of students have at least one-dose of the vaccine, while 43.2 percent have completed the regimen. That’s much higher among residential students, 70 percent of whom have started the process and 60 percent are fully vaccinated. Those numbers, Batey said, are all higher than for that age population statewide. Also, 65 percent of faculty and staff report being vaccinated.
David Jackson, president of the BGSU Faculty Association, said the union has signed a memorandum of understanding with the administration. That’s required by the contract because it involves potential disciplinary actions.
The union, he said, has been pushing the administration to implement a mandate at as early a date as possible.
The January deadline, Jackson said, is “meaningful … because it has real consequences.”
Batey said the greater urgency to get the athletes vaccinated was because of a number of factors. Because of MAC rules, they are facing quarantines if exposed, which could put athletes out of action multiple times during a season. The nature of sports puts them in continual and close contact to other athletes in situations where they cannot wear masks. All this had to be done as the fall has begun and winter sports will begin soon.
“There’s a little more of a timetable to get disrupted,” he said.
The university is looking at other groups – cheer and dance teams, club sports, and marching band – to see if they should be required to be vaccinated sooner than the university-wide mandate.
View President Rodney Rogers announcement:
