Quinnipiac University in Connecticut made a drastic announcement regarding vaccinations on the campus. The university has decided that it will impose fines and WiFi restrictions on students who won’t provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination by the beginning of the fall semester.
Quinnipiac has already enforced a mandatory vaccination for students and staff returning to on-campus learning. And in an email sent to students, the leadership of the school said that approximately 600 students have yet to fulfill the vaccination mandates.
“Our goal is to protect the health of our entire community,” the email obtained by a local news outlet said. “In order to accomplish this, we must know if you have been vaccinated.”
On Monday, officials at the Hamden, Connecticut, university emailed 600 students who had not submitted their vaccination status before the August 1 deadline, said John W. Morgan, associate vice president for public relations for Quinnipiac.
“If you provide evidence that you’ve received your first shot but not the second (if Pfizer or Moderna) you will not be charged as long as you are fully vaccinated by September 14,” said the university communication.
“If a student still has not fulfilled the vaccination requirement by September 14, they will lose access to the Quinnipiac network and Wi-Fi,” said the email to students.
The university has now imposed strict fines for students who will not upload proof of vaccination. The charges could go all the way up to $2,275 per person per semester. Quinnipiac also announced a tiered fine system. Fees will start at $100 per week for the first two weeks of the semester. Then the fees will increase incrementally by $25 every two weeks as long as proof of vaccination is not on file. The maximum fine imposed per week is $200.
Unvaccinated students will be forced to participate in “weekly, on-campus testing.” And failure to participate in the testing guidelines will result in a $100 fine.
The university’s email also announced that unvaccinated students will lose access to the university’s WiFi system if they do not meet the vaccination requirements by September 14. People are presuming that this will not include students who have been given a medical or religious exemption by the university.
A university spokesperson told a local news outlet that once the new guidelines were sent out on the updated WiFi guidance, there were an additional 30 students who submitted their proof of vaccination. And according to the same spokesperson, all full-time faculty members and staff have submitted the necessary vaccination information.
Quinnipiac University is not alone in its decision. They join a growing list of schools that are forcing the issue with masks and vaccinations so that apparently students can “safely” return to on-campus and in-person learning. They are responding to the CDC warning of a spike in the coronavirus Delta variant. Many universities have chosen to institute vaccine mandates for students who wish to return to campus learning. They join other large public universities such as Indiana University, Rutgers University, and Michigan State University.
The University of Michigan has mandated all students and faculty to wear face masks indoors, and they have mandated that all students and faculty get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Now, fining students for failing to meet vaccination requirements has become an increasingly common practice on college campuses. Memphis Tennessee’s Rhodes College will impose a $1,500 fine on unvaccinated students for the semester. And Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) in Alabama is mandating that unvaccinated students pay a $500 fine to cover the cost of weekly COVID-19 testing. The leadership of the school told students that the charge is imposed “to offset continual weekly antigen testing and quarantining” costs.
