Virginia State University is offering students a financial incentive to get vaccinated. (Photo courtesy Virginia State University)
This school year, students seeking to attend a Virginia college or university will need to readjust to campus life. They’ll also need a shot in the arm.
“Virginia Tech is requiring all students to receive a [COVID-19] vaccination, unless they receive an exemption for medical reasons or a deeply held religious belief,” says Mark Owczarski, associate vice president for VT’s university relations department. “Students who receive an exemption will be required to participate in regular, mandatory testing,” although details of that program had not been determined as of press time.
The policy is similar to those at other schools. “Vaccination is required for all students who live, learn, work or will be on campus for any reason, excluding those with religious or health exemptions,” says Mary Kate Brogan, public relations specialist at Virginia Commonwealth University. She added the school will continue asymptomatic surveillance testing this fall at no cost to students.
Virginia Tech is requiring vaccinations for students. Those who qualify for health and religious exemptions must participate in regular COVID testing. (Photo by Ray Meese courtesy Virginia Tech)
Virginia Tech and VCU join more than 20 Virginia higher-learning institutions, large and small, in requiring that students show proof of the COVID-19 vaccine before they can attend class. According to a survey from the Chronicle of Higher Education, nearly 600 U.S. colleges and universities out of an approximate 1,400 will require vaccines in the fall.
A student-led petition protesting the requirements at Virginia Tech, where the unvaccinated can be placed on interim suspension, has approximately 500 signatures. Sponsored by Young Americans for Liberty, a libertarian group with chapters on more than 400 U.S. campuses, it joins that organization’s petitions circulating elsewhere, such as the California State University campuses and the University of Colorado Boulder.
In July, Gov. Ralph Northam announced that the decision to require vaccinations would be left up to individual Virginia colleges and universities, although he was personally in favor of the policy.
“We had a couple of parents who were concerned about the vaccinations not being FDA approved,” says Dr. Leona Sevick, the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Bridgewater College, a private, liberal arts school in Rockingham County that serves 1,800 students. “But there’s been no blowback to our policy that I’m aware of. We have a COVID operations group that I chair along with the vice president for student life, and the questions we’ve received have been mostly about how to send in [vaccination] documentation.”
Some schools, like William & Mary, updated their vaccine policy as late as the end of July, when worries about the COVID-19 delta variant increased. “All students, faculty and staff will be required to be vaccinated for the fall semester, having at least the first shot by Aug. 10 before the start of the fall term,” says Suzanne Clavet, W&M director of news and media. “You’ll note that having a COVID vaccination requirement is not new for the university — we are moving up the timeline for the requirement based on the most recent data.”
Originally, William & Mary was to require COVID-19 vaccine shots from students only when one of the three vaccines was fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration; the University of Richmond still has this policy. “Given the scientific evidence to date, W&M has concluded that full vaccination is in the best interests of the health of our community,” reads a W&M press statement.
“It is the university’s goal to return to a ‘normal’ semester this fall.” —Mark Owczarski, associate vice president for Virginia Tech’s university relations department
While several historically Black colleges and universities, such as Hampton University, Virginia Union University and Norfolk State University, adopted an inoculation requirement early, Virginia State University waited until Aug. 6 to announce a requirement. Originally, VSU planned an aggressive campaign of social distancing, testing and masking, joining a small list of Virginia schools not requiring vaccines, including Liberty University, Tidewater Community College and Regent University.
According to Gwen Williams Dandridge, VSU’s director of communications, Virginia State University will now require all faculty, staff and students to be vaccinated for the fall 2021 semester.
“Full or first-dose vaccinations are required to reside on campus and/or attend face-to-face classes,” she says.
Virginia State is rare in that it will also offer financial incentives to those who go under the needle — $500 each for students and $1,000 for teachers and administration. “The financial incentive is our show of appreciation to those who are prioritizing and committing to keeping our campus and community healthy and safe,” Dandridge says. “[It] supports our belief that a fully vaccinated campus is the best strategy to enable VSU to safely provide greater learning experiences for our students.”
To help students reacclimate to a campus environment, many schools are also stressing in-person learning. According to a statement on the University of Richmond’s website, ”The University will return to nearly 100% fully in-person classes and will not offer remote study during the 2021–22 academic year.”
“It is the university’s goal to return to a ‘normal’ semester this fall,” says Virginia Tech’s Owczarski. “The majority of classes will be in person because Virginia Tech prides itself on students and teachers working closely together in the classroom, in labs, on research and in the field.” Online learning won’t disappear completely, he says. It will just get smarter. “I think the pandemic has shown us how to bring people together through technology, so I imagine that some faculty will leverage what they have learned over the past 18 months to further enhance their classroom teaching.”
VCU will offer welcome activities for sophomores, some of whom have not yet been on campus. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Even as they return to campus, some schools, like Virginia Commonwealth University, are expanding virtual learning beyond last year’s scope. “VCU plans to launch several online pathways for students to complete requirements to earn a bachelor’s degree, as well as to expand our selection of fully online undergraduate and graduate degree programs,” says VCU’s statement. The university maintains that the motivating factor to launch online degrees was not because of the pandemic but because of “the opportunity and flexibility that online education offers.”
VCU is also paying particular attention to its sophomores. The university is implementing a monthlong series of events and activities, including student convocation, the Ram Spirit Walk and a welcome fair and block party on the medical campus. “We understand that this year there will be two groups of students who will need to become acquainted with campus and to connect to the campus and community,” the university says. ”Our Weeks of Welcome events are meant to assist both groups as they navigate the college experience.”
Bridgewater is also focusing on second-year students, Sevick says. “We are listening to our sophomores. We have special activities planned for them, certainly during our opening convocation. As you know, many of those sophomores have never been on campus ... they were learning remotely last year. So there has to be a special focus.”
Inoculation Required
Bridgewater College
Christopher Newport University
Eastern Mennonite University
Hampton University
Hollins University
James Madison University
Longwood University
Mary Baldwin University
Marymount University
Norfolk State University
Old Dominion University
Radford University
Randolph College
Randolph-Macon College
Roanoke College
Sweet Briar College
Union Presbyterian Seminary
University of Lynchburg
University of Richmond (with FDA approval)
University of Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Military Institute
Virginia State University
Virginia Tech University
Virginia Union University
Virginia Wesleyan University
Washington & Lee University
William & Mary