Penn State will require all employees at the University Park campus to be vaccinated against COVID-19 following an executive order signed by President Joe Biden last month mandating the vaccine for all federal employees and contractors.
The executive order was issued on Sept. 9, but the university just determined that all faculty and staff must submit proof of vaccination by the federal deadline of Dec. 8, regardless of whether or not they work on a federal contract, according to a Penn State news release on Tuesday night.
Penn State has about 1,000 federal contracts worth more than $500 million at University Park. Biden’s executive order requires vaccinations for employees even in buildings where no federal contract work is taking place unless the institution can “affirmatively determine” that unvaccinated employees will not come into contact with vaccinated contractor employees.
“For all practical intents and purposes, it has become evident that we must extend the mandate to all employees at University Park,” Penn State President Eric Barron said in a statement.
According to Penn State’s COVID-19 dashboard, 81.2% of University Park employees have submitted proof of full vaccination.
The mandate does not apply to students unless they are employed by the university. According to the COVID-19 dashboard 88% of University Park students are already vaccinated.
It does apply to all full-time and part-time faculty, staff and technical-service employees.
So far, it does not apply to Commonwealth Campuses, but the university is “closely reviewing the Biden administration’s mandate and how it may apply to employees at other campuses and locations,” Barron said. He urged those employees who are not already vaccinated to begin the process now.
With the deadline now eight weeks away, employees getting the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccines would have to get their first shot very soon. The former requires three weeks in between doses and the latter four weeks. Individuals are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the second shot. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is one dose.
Information on medical and religious exemptions “is forthcoming,” according to the university release.
Unless they have an approved exemption, employees are expected to comply with the requirement,” Penn State spokesman Wyatt DuBois wrote in an email. “Like all University policies, there are disciplinary processes in place with consequences up to and including termination from employment.”
University administrators had until this point resisted imposing any COVID-19 mandate, instead opting to “incentivize” vaccinations and require weekly testing for employees and students who are not vaccinated.
Penn State’s Faculty Senate twice passed resolutions urging a university-wide mandate, even passing a vote of no-confidence in the administration’s COVID-19 response plan. The school’s student government organizations also called for a vaccine requirement, as did State College Borough and, later, its fellow municipalities in the Centre Region Council of Governments.
Multiple protests have been organized, chiefly by the faculty-led the Coalition for a Just University.
“The Biden executive order came out over a month ago,” the coalition wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning. “A partial process without details on documentation or exemptions, not for all campuses or community members. This isn’t about public health and safety. But we knew that. #ThisIsNotEnough”
