Northwestern Faculty, Staff Required To Get COVID-19 Vaccine

EVANSTON, IL — Faculty and staff at Northwestern University will be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or request a personal exception before being permitted to return to campus, administrators announced Thursday. It appears to be the first college in the state to mandate the coronavirus vaccine for employees.

In May, the private institution with campuses in Evanston and downtown Chicago said it would require all students be fully inoculated if they opt to take classes in-person but had not decided if university employees would have to follow the same protocols. Now, officials say they want to maintain the university's low COVID-19 positivity rate by including employees who return to campus as well.

"The vaccines are widely available, safe and effective, and requiring the community to be vaccinated will enable us to lift public health restrictions and increasingly resume campus life with confidence that our community is protected to the maximum degree, based on the latest science," Northwestern administrators wrote in an online statement.

Employees may apply for exemptions to the policy if they have religious beliefs that do not allow them to be vaccinated — or if they are wary of receiving a jabs "while they are under FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) status."

Staff and faculty whose exemption requests are approved by administrators will have wear a mask on campus and undergo COVID-19 testing twice a week, according to university officials. They will also be required to fill out an online symptom tracker while they are on university property.

Northwestern students can also request permission to remain unvaccinated based on the same reasons. They have been told to expect increased testing protocols if they do.

Should any of the vaccines receive full FDA approval, people who requested exemptions based on the fact they had only received emergency authorization will be required to get vaccinated.

Earlier this month, Illinois State University implemented a similar procedure that gave students the choice to prove their vaccination status or undergo regular testing at the university's discretion.

As a professor or other faculty, being unvaccinated does not qualify someone for remote work, Northwestern officials stipulated. If a staff or faculty member doesn't qualify for an exemption, administrators said further, unspecified action would be taken.

As of Friday, administrators reported Northwestern has a positivity rate of 0.06 percent across campuses in Evanston, Chicago, Qatar, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.