“Our goal is to protect the health of our entire university community,” Ellett wrote in the email, which was obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media.“In order to accomplish this we must know if you have been vaccinated.”
Those students who remain unvaccinated were urged in the email to “get vaccinated immediately” and upload a copy of their record to avoid non-compliance fees.
The university will impose a weekly fee — which would reach up to $2,275 for a semester — for not complying with the vaccination requirement, Ellett said. The fee starts at $100 per week for the first two weeks of the semester and will increase by $25 every two weeks until reaching the maximum of $200 per week. Ellett said the fines will stop once proof of vaccination is provided.
“We wish we did not have to take these measures, but protecting the health of our QU community by ensuring compliance with our vaccination requirement is the only way we can ease most of our COVID-related restrictions and safely return to our in-person learning and living activities,” Ellett said.
Any student who has started the vaccination process will not be charged as long as they are fully vaccinated by Sept. 14, Ellett said.
Students who have received their first dose of a two-shot vaccine must upload a negative COVID-19 test within five days of returning to campus and are required to do weekly, on-campus testing until two weeks after their second dose, Ellett said.
All unvaccinated students will be required to take weekly, on-campus COVID-19 tests. Any unvaccinated student who misses weekly testing will be charged a $100 fee each time, Ellett said.
Any student who has not fulfilled the vaccine requirement by Sept. 14 will lose access to the Quinnipiac network and Wi-Fi, Ellett said.
The deadline for students to request a medical exemption was July 6, but these are still being considered on a case-by-case basis, Ellet said. Ellett said the deadline for religious exemptions has passed.
“Our hope is we don’t have to assess these charges on anyone, but rather the students provide their necessary documentation as required before the start of the semester,” John Morgan, a spokesperson for the school, told Hearst Connecticut Media.
The university’s website indicates it has about 6,800 undergraduate and about 3,000 graduate, medical and law students across its three campuses in Hamden and North Haven.
*story by The New Haven Register
