“Completely outraged” UofL faculty lobbies for a vaccine mandate

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – More than 1,000 universities across the country, including several in Kentucky, require COVID-19 vaccinations for at least some students and staff. Despite the efforts of an increasingly vocal group of professors, the University of Louisville is not one of them.

“It’s really frustrating knowing that half of my family is too young to be vaccinated and I’m in a room every day with 25 students and I don’t know if they’re vaccinated,” said Lauren Freeman, professor. associate of philosophy. . “They wear masks, but it’s really scary.”

Freeman is one of many UofL faculty members pushing the school to follow the lead of other major public schools, including Indiana University and Ohio State University, and issue a mandate to vaccination. It’s a group that includes professors from the College of Arts and Science, Brandeis School of Law, and School of Medicine, among others.

They send emails and tweets to the university administration, advocate with their department directors, and meet privately with decision-makers. A petition for a warrant is also circulating among staff. But two weeks after classes started, as hospitalizations and COVID-19-related deaths increase in Kentucky, the UofL has not issued a warrant.

Instead, he “strongly encouraged all students, faculty and staff who come to campus to be vaccinated,” university spokesman John Karman told Spectrum News 1. L ‘UofL made the vaccine available on campus at pop-up sites in residences and lobbies in other campus buildings. Students who are vaccinated at the sites receive a “free college loot item and voucher to use at campus restaurants and cafes.” according to to the UofL provost, Lori Stewart Gonzalez.

In addition, the UofL has launched a contest to reward randomly selected vaccinated students with prizes, including free football tickets, AirPods, and free undergraduate tuition in the state. Masks are also mandatory in all public and indoor areas of the campus.

But that’s not enough for some faculty members. “Maybe the administration doesn’t understand that there is a substantial percentage of people who, no matter how many times you tell them to do something, won’t do it unless they have to. “said a professor who requested anonymity to speak freely about his concerns. “It’s the psychology behind the warrants. “

According to the latest figures, 80% of faculty and staff and 69% of students who returned to campus have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the university. Karman said UofL had no information on the immunization status of the other 31% of the students, which means some of them could be vaccinated.

That’s little comfort for teachers with children at home and those in high-risk groups, Freeman said.

“Every teacher I know belongs to one of the following three groups: they are either at risk because they are old, they have health problems regardless of their age, or they have young children at home.” , she said.

Freeman lobbied her department head over a vaccination mandate, “doing what I can, at my modest level,” she said. The professor who requested anonymity to speak freely said she contacted the university administration about the matter and received no response. “Everyone is completely outraged in my whole department,” she said.

She supports a vaccination mandate because “it is the only way out of the pandemic”. But she also believes that UofL has a responsibility to make decisions based on the best data and science available. Failure to impose a vaccine abdicates that responsibility, she said.

“The UofL is supposed to be a leader in the state,” she said. “We are supposed to be an example of what science and education values ​​in the community and across the state. And by not forcing the vaccine, the administration is not listening to scientists, doctors and experts. “

Others have argued that a vaccination warrant is a matter of racial justice, given the higher death and hospitalization rates among black, Hispanic and Indigenous populations.

“In view of these racial disparities, demanding the vaccine is a systemic anti-racism preventive enterprise,” an assistant professor recently wrote, requesting anonymity for confidentiality in a letter to university management. “As the university continues to grapple with what it means to be anti-racist, I urge you to consider the role our policies play in perpetuating the disparities that impact marginalized groups. “

More than 1,000 colleges

In March, Rutgers University became the first in the country to impose a COVID-19 vaccine on students returning to campus in the fall. Over the next six months, hundreds of schools joined him, according to at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

At least four schools in Kentucky have made vaccines mandatory, including Berea College, University of Transylvania, and Center College. All three are private.

No public post-secondary institution in Kentucky has mandated a COVID-19 vaccine, but nearly 800 teachers at the University of Kentucky signed a letter this week calling for a warrant there.

The large public schools in Indiana and Ohio have already issued warrants. Earlier this summer, Indiana University’s vaccination mandate for students, faculty and staff was the subject of a court challenge that went to the Supreme Court, which refused to block the warrant.

The full approval by the Food and Drug Administration of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine last month has prompted dozens of colleges to issue vaccine warrants, including several in Kentucky. “Now that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has received full FDA approval, the University of Bellarmine is requiring all students, faculty and staff to be fully immunized,” the school’s website says.

UofL spokesperson Karman did not respond to a question asking why the school did not join the hundreds of others who commissioned the vaccine.

While this position irritates some faculty members, it is welcomed by others. Russell L. Weaver, a professor of law and distinguished academic researcher at the Brandeis School of Law, told Spectrum News 1 he had “reservations about a vaccine warrant.”

“No one is sure about the long-term effects of the vaccine,” Weaver wrote in an email. He said he was vaccinated himself, but if he said these strangers would concern him more if he was in his 20s. He also cited “legitimate religious reasons for refusing to take the vaccine” and said requiring masks is a less intrusive way to fight COVID-19 than requiring a vaccine.

For Freeman, however, UofL’s failure to impose a vaccine mocks the university’s often-touted “community of care”.

“Don’t say you are a ‘community of care’ and then create an environment that is as safe as possible for everyone who is part of it,” she said.