Weekly fees, Wi-Fi access loss: Quinnipiac lays out penalties for unvaccinated students
August 17, 2021
As Quinnipiac University requires students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for the fall 2021 semester, students who did not request an exemption nor submit proof of vaccination will face consequences, according to Associate Vice President for Public Relations John Morgan’s email to The Chronicle.
Students who don’t comply with the mandate will face a weekly fee starting at $100 per week during the first two weeks. It will increase by $25 every two weeks up to a maximum of $200 a week. The fee can reach up to $2,275 for the entire semester.
The university will stop billing when students submit their proof of their first vaccination shot. If students become fully vaccinated by Sept. 14, they will not be charged.
Morgan said the university sent the email to around 600 students who have not yet uploaded any vaccination information.
Junior psychology major Danyella Kaplan said it is important for Quinnipiac to take vaccinations and protection against the virus seriously. While she said consequences for non-compliance are necessary, she questioned this move.
“Financial consequences do not seem to be the right answer that will actually have long-term benefits,” Kaplan said. “If students choose to be unvaccinated, having them take a class on the importance of practicing safety measures would be a more beneficial measure to take.”
The email states that students will lose access to Wi-Fi and the campus network if they fail to complete the vaccination mandate by Sept. 14.
As unvaccinated students are required to participate in weekly COVID-19 testing, there will be a $100 fee each time they miss a week.
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These penalties and fees will be waived if unvaccinated students get at least one shot of vaccination by Aug. 25. However, they still need to participate in weekly testing until two weeks after their second dose and submit a negative COVID-19 test prior to returning.
Junior nursing major Jack Quinn said this policy is a great incentive to get more students vaccinated. He also said the university’s decision is different from what he thought would happen.
“I would have preferred it if Quinnipiac simply banned unvaccinated (without an exemption) students from returning, which is what myself and many of my friends thought was originally going to happen,” Quinn said.
Senior biology major Sydnie Bookman said these fines are not in place to “take away our freedom,” but rather to ensure the health and wellness of the community members. While she said she respects people’s right to make an informed decision for themselves regarding vaccination, Quinnipiac has the right to put these penalties in place.
“Deliberately ignoring these simple protocols that were agreed to upon coming to Quinnipiac this fall should be, in my opinion, fined as they can be detrimental to the health of others,” Bookman said.
She added that these protocols and fines should be expanded to vaccinated students as well because they can still be carrying the virus unknowingly.
“Both vaccinated and unvaccinated students could be jeopardizing the community’s health and forcing us back to Zoom University,” Bookman said. “And let’s be real, no matter where you stand regarding this vaccine, no one wants that.”
Despite the vaccine requirement, Quinnipiac reinstated its indoors mask mandate on Aug. 2, following the rise of COVID-19 delta variant cases.
In a Tuesday morning’s email to students, the university “strongly recommends” vaccinated students to obtain a negative PCR test within five days before returning. It is required for unvaccinated students. Students must isolate for 10 days if they test positive regardless of their vaccination status. However, vaccinated students don’t have to quarantine if they are a confirmed contact of a positive case unless they are symptomatic.
The university’s polling institute found on Aug. 5, that 72% of Americans have either received the vaccine or plan to receive it while 21% said they do not plan to get one. On the topic of the vaccine mandate at college campuses, 49% of Americans oppose universities requiring their students to receive a COVID-19 vaccine while 48% support it.
mike • Aug 21, 2021 at 6:53 am
This is yet another example of people with too much power who think they can impose their will on people like a school yard bully. NO ONE has the right to make health decisions except the individual. You have no right to fine students or take away their privileges based on some non science based mandates. Schools such as yours and many others and fortune 500 companies suddenly are acting like Nazis, Thats right , Nazis. I don’t apologize for this statement because it is true . My advise to students who are being bullied by these bully tyrants, leave these institutions immediately and go somewhere else where there aren’t crazed lunatics trying to impose their unlawful will upon people. If enough people stand up to these people they will eventually fail.
Lee • Aug 20, 2021 at 11:36 am
I think ALL those students who are not vaccinated should quit that STUPID school!
Snaans Gaadi • Aug 20, 2021 at 9:50 am
We all understand this has NOTHING to do with health, but everything to do with CONTROL and forcing people to do something against informed consent. What’s next? Can’t buy or sell anything without papers? I wonder if we have seen this before? Nazi Germany, Russia, China, North Korea, … As a previous poster said, if they are truly worried about health, then test for drugs and alcohol (at least underage; oh right, college students under 21 don’t consume alcohol). You want to inject me with an experimental vaccine that has not gone through sufficient testing or received FDA approval and has shown to have all sorts of side effects and death and the manufacturers and govt have absolved themselves of any repercussions? Uh, no thanks! Here’s what I would do if I were you. Leave this woke school and take your money elsewhere.
Tom • Aug 20, 2021 at 9:03 am
Disgusting use of power to divide students and create bias in our universities. Any professor should be ashamed to be associated with this university!
John Hetrick • Aug 19, 2021 at 11:32 pm
This is a ridiculous overreach by the University and is not justified by the facts. Yes, Covid spreads, and the Delta variant spreads even easier. However, despite the spread, younger people – people under age 24, have a very low chance of serious illness from Covid, and an even lower mortality rate.
There are other causes of death more impactful than Covid for this age group – Covid-19 is the 6th leading cause of death according to CDC data published on Freeopp.org by the National Center for Health statistics. The top 5, in order, are: 1) Accidental, 2) Suicide, 3) Homicide (victim), 4) Malignant Neoplasms, and 5) Heart Disease. What is the University doing to “protect” their students from these factors that have more impact than Covid in terms of deaths?
The Covid vaccines are EXPERIMENTAL, and their long term effectiveness and effects are not fully known. When weighing the very low risk from Covid in this age group against the unknown lifelong risk of an experimental vaccine, a cogent analysis and decision would be to not get the vaccine. An example of what can go wrong is the Swine Flu vaccinations in the 1970s, which were linked to hundreds of cases of a neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can develop after an infection or, rarely, after vaccination with a live vaccine. That vaccine was given to 40 million people, only to be stopped due to the issues.
I say this as a 59 year old who has been vaccinated. My reasons for doing so are my age (older people have disproportionately bad impacts from Covid), and that I am susceptible to bronchial infections. But for my 3 daughters, all in their early 20s, the risk outweighs the benefit of these vaccines – at least for now until more is known. By the way, they each came to their own independent conclusion, making their own decision based on their research and assessment of the facts.
It is both arrogant and callous of the University to penalize students who are not vaccinated, given the potential risks to the students of getting the vaccine vs. the very lows risks of not doing so. If the University really cares about their students’ well being, invest more time and resources into the 5 leading causes of death in the age group of their students. And how about teaching them the value of Liberty, personal responsibility, and critical thinking? That will give them a real college education!
Thank you,
John Hetrick
David • Aug 18, 2021 at 5:28 pm
If the concern is about “safety”, how about mandating toxicology tests and fining and cutting off Internet access for those testing positive for illegal drugs? The same with underage alcohol consumption. There’s a lot you can do in the name of “safety”.
My point is that this is overreach. The policy has potential to disrupt the academic careers of students without considering a plethora of reasons why one may not be vaccinated. Students are already enrolled with no options for another venue. They may be recovered from the disease, with naturally acquired immunity. There may be a medical reason, or they may feel at risk from a still-experimental medical treatment. All prior vaccines were subject to years of extensive testing and study prior to approval and many had issues to be remedied before rollout to the general public.
Matt • Aug 17, 2021 at 4:12 pm
This is a real shame. It doesn’t make sense to me that students are PAYING Quinnipiac to attend the school, yet Quinnipiac is going to go ahead and pull access to the network and Wi-Fi that these students are paying to access.
The school should be offering other accommodations to students that choose to not be vaccinated (such as e-learning). Gross overstep by the school.
I am an alumni and an ashamed to be associated with Quinnipiac right now. Won’t be seeing a dime of donation money from me.