It’s clear that getting vaccinated is a personal choice, but for some colleges, the choice to not get vaccinated will cost students in the long run. West Virginia Wesleyan College for instance initially planned to charge unvaccinated students a nonrefundable $750 ‘Covid Fee’, however according to their website, as of Aug. 19, they have changed their stance, and now will be making testing mandatory. Student-athletes will have to submit to antigen testing 24-hours prior to a game or event, and each test will be $5.
The rest of the unvaccinated student body will be tested at random, with 10 percent of the students being tested at a time. Each of those tests will be $5 each time a student is tested. If a student tests positive, they will be provided with 48-hours of ‘free quarantine’ housing, but must then quarantine off-campus. If a student is unable to leave campus, they will be charged $250 to stay on campus for the remainder of their quarantine.
Birmingham-Southern College will be charging unvaccinated students $500 to offset the cost of weekly testing and quarantining. The school plans to initially charge ALL students, but those who can prove their vaccination status will be immediately refunded. The school states that the fees are ‘due to a lack of pandemic precautions funding’.
The University of Virginia has unenrolled 49 students who failed to meet their vaccine mandate. Over 96 percent of the student body including staff is vaccinated, and those who have medical or religious exemptions have been given permanent waivers. A total of 238 students are not in compliance with the mandate but only 49 of those had actually signed up for any classes. The school has given unvaccinated students until Aug. 25 to get into compliance and re-enroll, or those students can choose to wait until spring, but will still be required to get the vaccine. The university is not the only school to mandate the vaccine for their students and unveiled this plan in May. Students have been sent multiple reminders via email and were asked to provide proof by July 1. The school called, texted, and emailed those not in compliance multiple times.
The Delta variant, which is currently the strain responsible for most COVID cases, has made reopening more difficult. Even with the vaccine, there is the risk of breakthrough cases, which could infect unvaccinated students. For more information about the COVID, variant click here or visit coronavirus.ohio.gov.
Jeri Hensley
Executive Editor/Creative Director