More than 200 public US colleges are requiring COVID vaccines. In SC, that’s illegal.
The vast majority of South Carolina’s colleges and universities do not plan to require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before they return to campus in the fall, a decision that runs counter to the recommendation of the American College Health Association.
While many schools are encouraging students to roll up their sleeves, all but a few have stopped short of requiring the vaccine after state lawmakers passed legislation that prevents most colleges from imposing vaccine requirements, arguing it amounts to a restriction on personal freedoms.
Only Furman University and Wofford College, both small, private liberal arts colleges, have announced plans to mandate student vaccinations. None of the state’s public colleges and universities has such a requirement.
Gov. Henry McMaster in May issued an executive order that stripped government entities of the ability to impose various COVID-19-related restrictions, including so-called “vaccine passports,” which some have interpreted as limiting the ability of public universities to mandate vaccinations.
State lawmakers made the prohibition on vaccine mandates more explicit last month by including a line item in the state budget that prevents state-supported institutions of higher learning from requiring proof of vaccination as a condition of enrollment, attendance at on-campus instruction or residence on campus.
As a result, large state-funded schools like Clemson and the University of South Carolina cannot legally compel student inoculations, even if they wanted to.
The limits placed on student vaccine requirements, which many Republican-led states have adopted, may result in South Carolina’s already low vaccination rate among college-age residents falling further behind states where universities do require students to get COVID-19 shots.
Residents age 20-24 are currently the least-vaccinated group in South Carolina by a wide margin, according to S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control data. While nearly 50% of eligible residents have gotten at least one COVID-19 shot, only 5% of 20-to 24-year-olds are at least partially vaccinated.
DHEC officials are working to boost young adult vaccination rates through incentive programs at local breweries and a public messaging campaign, but said they were not currently recommending vaccine mandates for any individuals or entities, including universities.
“Just as DHEC does not mandate any other vaccines for colleges and universities, it does not mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for those schools,” spokesman Derrek Asberry said in a statement. “However, DHEC strongly recommends COVID-19 vaccination for all eligible people, including college and university students and staff.”
The American College Health Association, a national organization of college health professionals that advocates for student health and wellness, released guidance in late April recommending that colleges implement COVID-19 vaccination requirements for all on-campus students in the fall, allowing for medical exemptions.
Roughly 540 colleges and universities nationwide, more than 200 of them publicly funded, have adopted vaccine mandates for at least some students and employees to date, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
While young people rarely suffer serious complications or death after contracting COVID-19 — about 3.5% of coronavirus-related hospitalizations and 0.5% of deaths in South Carolina have involved people age 30 and under — the American College Health Association advised mandating vaccinations to prevent students from spreading the virus to others in the surrounding community who are more vulnerable.
“A COVID-19 vaccination requirement helps to protect the campus via community (herd) immunity,” the organization said in a statement announcing its guidance. “Importantly, protection is also provided to the community around the campus; high-risk individuals at the (university); and those students, faculty, and staff who have (university-approved) exemptions that preclude COVID-19 vaccination.”
SC universities without vaccine mandates
The University of South Carolina system, which enrolls more than 50,000 students across its eight campuses, opted not to mandate vaccinations on the advice of its public health team, spokesman Jeff Stensland said.
“We’ve said from the very beginning that we’ll let our public health experts guide decision-making with health and safety,” he said, explaining that health leaders at the state’s largest university did not support a mandate primarily because COVID-19 vaccines have yet to receive full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
While the FDA granted emergency use authorization to all three vaccines currently in use in the United States after rigorous clinical trials, some people remain hesitant to roll up their sleeves until the drugs receive full approval. Both Pfizer and Moderna have applied to the FDA for full approval, but the agency has not disclosed its timeline for granting it.
Stensland said that even after the vaccines are fully approved, as is anticipated, the university is not likely to require them.
Unlike other diseases that the college requires students to be inoculated against, COVID-19 does not pose as severe a health risk to them, he said.
“It’s not on the same level as contracting meningitis would be,” said Stensland, adding that the university effectively tamped down COVID-19 on campus last year through regular testing requirements and the implementation of isolation and quarantine policies.
“We feel pretty good about where we are,” he said.
Most other colleges contacted by The State did not specify or explain why they were not mandating vaccinations, but all said they were encouraging students and staff to get inoculated.
A Winthrop University spokeswoman said that because the school was prohibited from requiring vaccinations due to the governor’s May executive order, its leadership team did not have lengthy discussions on the topic.
Benedict, a small, private historically Black college in Columbia, said all students, employees and visitors to campus are “expected” to be fully vaccinated, but would not be required to get a shot due to the “uncommon sensitivity and the inherently personal nature of the decision.”
Though most schools will not mandate vaccinations, many are placing restrictions on unvaccinated students or requiring they adhere to certain guidelines that are not applied to vaccinated students.
South Carolina and the College of Charleston, for instance, are requiring that unvaccinated students submit to monthly COVID-19 testing, and Winthrop is making unvaccinated students submit a negative coronavirus test before starting in the fall.
College of Charleston also makes unvaccinated students submit a negative COVID-19 test or evidence of a positive COVID-19 test within the past three months to secure on-campus housing. Students who fail to submit the appropriate documentation should expect their move-in to be delayed, the school said.
Neither South Carolina nor College of Charleston are enforcing mask mandates on campus, but some colleges will continue to require the unvaccinated to wear facial coverings.
Winthrop and South Carolina State are requiring all unvaccinated individuals — students, faculty, staff and visitors — to wear masks indoors unless working alone in a private office. Benedict is requiring anyone who is unvaccinated to wear a mask on campus.
It’s also requiring unvaccinated students who live less than 150 miles from campus to quarantine offsite if they contract COVID-19 rather than holing up in a designated area on campus, as they had been permitted to do in the past.
A Clemson spokeswoman said the university would not require vaccinations, but had not yet established other COVID-19 guidelines for the fall semester.
All schools reached by The State are encouraging students to get inoculated, but only the University of South Carolina said it planned to incentivize getting a shot.
The university will release student videos with peer-to-peer pro-vaccine messaging and plans to give away buttons, stickers and clothing to students who get shots.
“We found last year with testing that when we offered free t-shirts for people to get tested for COVID it really increased the number of students who were willing to do it,” Stensland said.
SC colleges requiring the COVID-19 vaccine
Wofford, a private college in Spartanburg with about 1,800 students, was the first institution of higher learning in South Carolina to announce its intention to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for students.
Nayef Samhat, the college’s president, notified students and staff in late April that Wofford planned to require shots for students returning to campus in the fall.
“We continue to consult with experts at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center and the Department of Health and Environmental Control, but at this point Wofford College intends to require vaccination for students returning to campus for the fall semester,” Samhat wrote. “The college will accommodate medical and religious exemptions, as with other vaccines, but the expectation will be that our community of learners will overwhelmingly consist of vaccinated individuals.”
He laid out three possible scenarios:
- If the campus were to reach an 80% vaccination rate by the start of the fall semester, it may be able to operate under pre-pandemic guidelines, meaning full in-person instruction, a return to athletics competition and large social events.
- If vaccination levels were greater than 50% but failed to hit 80%, the fall semester would begin with normal in-person instruction, but with enhanced safety measures like masking, physical distancing and surveillance testing in place.
- A campus vaccination rate below 50% would mean Wofford would operate much as it had last school year, with physically distanced classrooms and a mix of in-person and remote instruction.
As of last week, more than 70% of Wofford faculty and staff and roughly a quarter of students had submitted proof of COVID-19 vaccination, spokesman Dudley Brown said.
He said the college would stick to its vaccination requirement, assuming at least one of the COVID-19 shots receives FDA approval by fall.
“Once it receives full approval, (the COVID-19 vaccine) will be mandated and it’ll be among the list of vaccines that all students are required to have to be on campus,” Brown said.
Until full regulatory approval occurs, however, COVID-19 shots will only be strongly encouraged.
“One thing we’ve all learned during the course of this pandemic is that we are going to have to be flexible and that things will change constantly,” Brown said.
If Wofford does move forward with its student vaccine mandate, the college won’t bar unvaccinated students from enrolling but will require them to submit to weekly surveillance testing, he said.
Students who do not upload their COVID-19 test results each week will be subject to additional consequences.
On June 1, Furman University in Greenville followed Wofford’s lead and announced its plan to require COVID-19 shots for students, but not employees.
Furman officials based their decision on research showing the vaccines were safe and effective, and the belief that a fully vaccinated student body would permit the university to return to pre-pandemic operations in the fall.
“We saw what was happening nationally and took into consideration the advice from the CDC and the state,” spokesman Clinton Colmenares said. “We want to get back to normal operations and really the best way for us to do that is to require vaccinations.”
The school said its decision to make vaccinations optional, but strongly encouraged for employees was consistent with its approach to all other immunizations, which are mandated for students but not workers.
“As a residential campus, students are in close proximity to one another in housing, dining facilities, athletics, and social activities,” Furman explains on its website. “Additionally, Furman must provide support resources to students who get sick while they are away from home, unlike employees who remain off campus when ill and seek support in the external community.”
Students may request an exemption from the requirement for religious or medical reasons, or due to a “strong personal objection.”
Those who fail to submit an exemption request by Aug. 1 will be barred from enrolling in their fall classes and restricted from campus, the university said.
Colmenares said Furman had heard from very few students who declined the vaccine due to a strong personal objection, but would respect the wishes of those who do and not subject them to additional scrutiny.
“It’s not something that we’re going to police. We’re trusting the folks will get vaccinated and that they’ll keep themselves healthy,” he said. “If someone is not vaccinated, we would encourage them to wear a mask. And even vaccinated folks, if they’re more comfortable wearing a mask, that’s OK, but we’re not going to punish anybody for not getting vaccinated.”
If an unvaccinated student who has declined the vaccine due to a strong personal objection comes down with the virus, however, they’ll be required to report it to the health center and quarantine or isolate off campus. They’ll also have to fit the bill for any costs not covered by insurance and won’t be guaranteed remote access to any courses they’re forced to miss while quarantining.
Colmenares said university officials anticipated some pushback to its student vaccination requirement, but had thus far received very little.
As of last week, nearly half of students, 55% of staff and more than three-quarters of faculty members had been vaccinated, according to school data.
In addition to Furman and Wofford, Lenoir-Rhyne University, a Hickory, North Carolina-based school that operates a theological seminary in Columbia, said it would require COVID-19 vaccinations for students, faculty and staff. Lenoir-Rhyne is not a general-studies school and has only about 250 students, faculty and staff combined at its Columbia campus.
This story was originally published July 1, 2021 at 7:00 AM.