Courtney Balcombe

News Editor

clb6264@psu.edu

In an email sent from Chancellor Ralph Ford on October 19, faculty, staff, and students employed by Penn State were informed that University Park had adopted a COVID-19 vaccine mandate to meet the Biden administration’s executive order that currently applies to all federal employees, contractors, etc.

According to UP’s vaccine website, this applies to faculty and staff at Altoona, Behrend, Berks, Brandywine, DuBois, Fayette, Harrisburg, Schuylkill, and University Park. Extension employees are also covered under the mandate.

“As a college with significant research and outreach activities, we have work being conducted under federal grants and contracts and must also comply with this federal mandate.” Dr. Ford shared in the email. “All faculty and staff members at Penn State Behrend (including those working remotely) will need to be fully vaccinated for COVID by December 8, and a University announcement will be released later today. The mandate applies to all full-time and part-time employees, whether or not they are working on a federal contract, because the executive order applies to employees in buildings even where no federal contracting work takes place. The requirement will also apply to all students working on wage payroll.”

Then on October 25, UP announced religious accommodations for all employees. While religious accommodations are approved, they remain in effect until June 2022 and must be requested annually.

“Individuals covered by the vaccination mandate who believe that their sincerely held religious beliefs, practices, or observances prevent them from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, may complete an online request form and submit it to the Affirmative Action Office (AAO) for consideration on or before November 5,” Penn State’s website states.

On October 29, UP announced their medical accommodations for all employees, “who have a disability or medical condition that they believe prevents them from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine can now request accommodations by completing an online request form on or before Friday, November 12.”

Employees are encouraged to submit their accommodation requests as early as possible. Each accommodation will be carefully reviewed and those requesting accommodations will be notified in writing if their request is granted or denied, or if more information is needed.

According to UP, the last day to start the vaccination process and meet the deadline to be fully vaccinated using the Moderna vaccine was October 27. In order to meet the December 8 deadline to be fully vaccinated, individuals must get their first and second doses of the various vaccines no later than these dates:

Pfizer-BioNTech: first dose by November 3; second dose by November 24

Johnson & Johnson: single dose by November 24

Students who are unvaccinated and do not work on campus are also reminded that if they miss three of their required COVID-19 tests, they will be removed from campus and will not be allowed to attend classes or events.