Not all R.I. colleges are requiring staff, faculty to get vaccinated

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND students await getting their COVID-19 vaccines at a recent clinic. While students at all 11 Rhode Island-based colleges are required to get vaccinated before the fall, URI is among six colleges in the Ocean State not requiring faculty and staff to get vaccinated. / COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND students await getting their COVID-19 vaccines at a recent clinic. While students at all 11 Rhode Island-based colleges are required to get vaccinated before the fall, URI is among six colleges in the Ocean State not requiring faculty and staff to get vaccinated. / COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND

PROVIDENCE – Last month at a weekly press conference, Gov. Daniel J. McKee boasted that the state was the first in the U.S. to have all its state-based colleges, public and private, to require their students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before the upcoming fall semester.

The push by all the local colleges to get students vaccinated was intended to facilitate a return to normal campus life. Last year, the ongoing pandemic forced colleges to shift to  online courses and limit in-person campus activity due to outbreaks.

The push to vaccinate student populations has only grown recently as the delta variant has raised the state’s infection rate at a time when colleges are finalizing plans for the upcoming year.

Student vaccination requirements at Rhode Island-based colleges are universal, but it’s not so for faculty and staff.

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To date, only five colleges in Rhode Island, all private – Brown University, Bryant University, Salve Regina University, Johnson & Wales University and Roger Williams University –  are mandating their faculty and staff to be vaccinated along with their students before returning to campus this fall.

In Massachusetts, at least 22 colleges, all private, are requiring faculty and staff to get vaccinated before the fall, according to the Boston Business Journal. That makes up about 13% of all colleges in Massachusetts requiring vaccines for staff and faculty.

Daniel Egan, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island, recently told Providence Business News that he feels all businesses, including colleges and universities, are starting to think hard about requiring employees to get vaccinated with the delta variant now present in the area. He also said local colleges would like to leave vaccinations as a choice for faculty and staff because the colleges know they will get employee compliance.

Brown issued in late May a July 1 deadline for its faculty and staff to get vaccinated, and the decision paid off. Brown spokesperson Brian Clark told PBN July 29 that just about 94% of all employees are vaccinated to date.

“Our goal has been near universal vaccination – of course there’s an exemption process for medical reasons or religious reasons – but we want to get as close to 100% as we can. We’re just about there,” Clark said.

Clark reiterated that faculty and staff will have options to either be placed on leave without pay, apply for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, or take paid time off if they don’t get vaccinated and are not granted exemptions. He also said he was unsure if anyone has been discharged from Brown for not getting vaccinated, and was also unsure if Brown would disclose such information.

Both Salve and RWU are both above the 90% vaccination rate for both faculty and staff, as well as their student populations. Both RWU Chief of Staff Brian Williams and Salve President Kelli J. Armstrong said those rates at their respective campuses will help with obtaining herd immunity in order to bring campus life back.

“I think it’s good because it’s so much a part of our identity to be in communities together,” Armstrong said. “Even though there is some worry about the delta variant and what’s been going on, one reassurance for us is that we’re north of the 90s for our vaccination rate, we have a nice herd immunity here on campus.”

JWU and Bryant recently changed their respective policies from encouraging faculty and staff to be vaccinated to mandating them to be so. Bryant announced its change July 1 – a month after it fully reopened its campus – while JWU changed its policy July 29. JWU Providence President Marie Bernardo-Sousa said the change was for faculty and staff to be on the same level playing field as the students.

Close to 70% of JWU’s faculty and staff are vaccinated to date, Bernardo-Sousa said, and expects that number to be higher by September. She said the university will work with individual faculty and staff members who are concerned about being vaccinated and do not meet the exemption qualifications.

Some leaders of the six Rhode Island-based colleges that are not requiring vaccines for staff and faculty said they chose to recommend faculty and staff to get vaccinated in the hopes employees would get vaccinated on their own without a mandate. A couple of colleges are leaving the door open for potentially switching their policies to a possible mandate.

About 73% of Providence College’s full-time faculty and staff have provided the college vaccination proof, according to PC Executive Vice President Ann Manchester-Molak in a recent email. She says the number is “pretty close” to the state’s overall vaccination rate of those ages 18 and older. Manchester-Molak said PC is hoping to get compliance as its reason to “strongly encourage” vaccinations for faculty and staff. But, she said PC may reconsider its position within the next 10 days.

New England Institute of Technology Executive Vice President said about 70% of its faculty and staff are vaccinated with about two months until the start of the fall term. He said the technical college is currently reinforcing to faculty and staff to get vaccinated and the idea of requiring employee vaccinations is still on the table.

Rhode Island School of Design has met its 80% vaccination rate threshold for the fall even though RISD is not requiring staff and faculty to be vaccinated. According to its COVID-19 database, 88.9% of all faculty and 82.4% of all staff at RISD as of Aug. 2 were vaccinated. The college’s student rate was 82.5%.

Rhode Island School of Design Interim President David Proulx in an email Tuesday cited the arts college’s student vaccination requirement, which was based on the transmission risks inherent in congregate settings on campus, as the reason why vaccines are only encouraged for employees. These risks, Proulx said, decrease with employees, who interact with each other and students in more regulated settings.

Proulx also said RISD employees are required to disclose their vaccination status with the college to make sure RISD offers “a highly vaccinated environment.”

It was unclear what the vaccination rates are for faculty and staff at the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and the Community College of Rhode Island.

URI Provost Donald DeHayes in a July 30 interview declined to provide faculty and staff vaccination rates at the university, citing that URI is not allowed to survey faculty and staff on that matter due to health privacy matters. URI spokesperson Dave Lavallee said Aug. 2 in an email that the university is still encouraging employees to get vaccinated, but did not state why URI chose to encourage employees and not require it. Lavallee also said URI is following the situation daily and will make changes to health guidelines as appropriate.

CCRI spokesperson Amy Kempe said Aug. 2 in an email that the college’s policy to require students to be vaccinated for in-person classes and strongly encourage faculty and staff to be vaccinated is “in line with the majority of colleges” within Rhode Island and beyond. She also said CCRI believes that its faculty/staff vaccination rates are similar to or better than statewide vaccination rates based on the demographics of CCRI’s employees, but declined to share what those rates are.

RIC and Bryant did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.

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