Rumor down at the faculty club is it that the Covid vaccine requirement announced by Pres Schill and Provost Phillips will not actually be enforced. Students, staff, and faculty will be able to declare a medical, religious, or philosophical exemption, but will not have to provide documentation or explanation.
Gotta wonder if they had major blow back from undergrads….
The religious exemption, however idiotic one might think that is, has always been and probably will always be in place for these kinds of things. So the “philosophical exemption” really has no effect if one realizes that they can just claim a religious exemption.
Are they at least going to post stats about what percentage of people are vaccinated, preferably with crosstabs? Doesn’t everyone else have a right to know the risks?
No proof or documentation or explanation means it is no requirement at all. It is little more than lame pleading. I appreciate that the logistics of requiring proof are significant, and possibly expensive. But if this rumor is true it is an empty requirement and they should just abandon it in favor of honesty. Don’t posture or pose on this issue.
The state of Oregon requires that public education institutions with vaccine requirements allow for exemptions including a non-medical category. This has nothing to do with the preferences of anyone at UO. If you think this is dumb, contact your elected representatives in the state legislature. https://www.oregon.gov/OHA/PH/PreventionWellness/VaccinesImmunization/GettingImmunized/Pages/non-medical-exemption.aspx
The header at that page says:
“The exemption options below do not cover COVID-19 vaccine requirements implemented by individual schools and colleges. Contact your school or college for information about exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination requirements.” Are you sure there’s actually a state law that requires universities to accept exemption requests without question?
Yes. The OHA website is poorly worded (shocking, I know): what that line should say is “the exemption *process* laid out below does not apply to COVID-19, because we can’t get our sh*t together so each school has to create their own process to comply with state law in the absence of any real help from the state.”
Thanks for the clarification and +1 for telling people to contact their state reps. It’s appalling that Oregon’s “I don’t wanna” exemption policy wasn’t updated for covid. Letting measles rip through Montessori preschools and evangelical churches is bad enough, but allowing universities to be petri dishes for covid variants is unconscionable.
Not sure how they’ll track for employees, but I know of UGs trying to register for fall and not being allowed to since they’re vax status is missing.
I haven’t heard of this. Any details?
It will simply be exemption request, period. No info or further details are required by State Law.
UO risk services does not want to get into an HR legal battle over HIPAA/FERPA records.
Indiana now requires vaccination before registration. We need to do this now.