Many colleges are mandating students and staff to get the COVID-19 vaccine. While vaccine mandates have good intentions, they could have unanticipated consequences on higher education.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, students everywhere from California have wanted to get back on campus to learn. A vaccine mandate at Citrus would make students have to wait even longer to be allowed back on campus.
As of Oct. 22nd, 2021 there have been 11,014 mandatory weekly tests taken, only five of which came back positive. The small positivity rate shows the success of mandatory weekly testing at Citrus College, and a vaccine mandate is not necessary because of it.
Students and staff can get the vaccine if they want to, but they should keep weekly testing available for those who choose not to get the vaccine.
Mandating the vaccine on campus would create a discrepancy at Citrus College by allowing vaccinated students a chance to learn in person and leaving unvaccinated students with few alternatives.
Faculty and staff are petitioning the college to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for every person on campus for the spring 2022 semester. The WingSpan live schedule for spring shows that about 24% of classes will be fully online, meaning 76% of courses at Citrus would require students to be fully vaccinated if the vaccine was mandated.
If the school decides to implement a vaccine mandate by the start of the spring 2022 semester, only fully vaccinated students will be able to attend on-campus classes, leaving unvaccinated students stuck with online learning.
Citrus College should let unvaccinated students come to campus because it wouldn’t be fair to only let vaccinated students take on-campus classes. Students should not allow the possibility of being stuck with online learning to affect their decision to get the vaccine.
While a vaccine mandate may attract new students who want a safer campus, it could also cause a drop in enrollment. Enrollment is already low, and it may drop even more if Citrus College doesn’t provide students an alternative to getting vaccinated.
If Citrus wants to keep students enrolled in classes, they should at least give unvaccinated students other options to get an education like continuing to do mandatory weekly testing and prescreening, offer more online classes and offer students the opportunity to attend on-campus classes remotely.
