NSHE employee COVID-19 vaccine mandate to continue
Nevada higher education regents failed one motion and deadlocked on another Thursday night, essentially meaning that an employee COVID-19 vaccination mandate remains in effect and workers who haven’t complied will be fired Friday.
Nevada System of Higher Education Regent Jason Geddes made a motion to maintain the existing employee vaccination requirement, which required seven votes to pass.
But the board was deadlocked in a 6-6 vote, with Regents Patrick Boylan, Byron Brooks, Patrick Carter, Cathy McAdoo, Laura Perkins and Joseph Arrascada opposed. Regent Lois Tarkanian wasn’t in attendance.
Carter then made a motion to maintain the vaccination requirement but push the effective termination date for those who’ve failed to comply from Friday to Jan. 15.
That failed in a 3-9 vote, with Carter, Brooks and Boylan in favor.
The board considered a few options: keeping the current vaccination mandate, eliminating it or pushing back a termination deadline.
College and university employees had until Dec. 1 to provide proof of vaccination unless they have an approved medical or religious exemption.
Those who didn’t received termination notices this month, and nearly 400 employees face getting fired.
But there is some flexibility. Employees are allowed to provide proof of vaccination this month, and those who are fired can seek reinstatement if they show proof of vaccination in January.
Five regents — Boylan, Brooks, Carter, McAdoo and Perkins — requested the special meeting Thursday.
The board’s decision, which came after about two and a half hours of public comments and deliberation, happened on the heels of a state Legislative Commission action last week that essentially halted a student COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
Commission members were deadlocked in a 6-6 vote on a permanent vaccination regulation that would have replaced a recently expired emergency measure.
Geddes said regents have authority over faculty and staff but not the State Board of Health or the Legislative Commission. It’s the responsibility of the board to ensure as many people on campuses as possible are vaccinated for safety, he added.
“This is under our control,” he said, noting the board should not backslide on the employee mandate.
Regents approved the employee vaccination mandate in September in a 10-3 vote under a 120-day emergency code revision.
And this month, the board voted 9-4 to approve a permanent code revision.
Nearly 95 percent of the NSHE’s employees are already fully vaccinated, according to the system’s online dashboard.
In total, 379 employees of the more than 22,240 who work for NSHE will be fired. An additional 188 will end their employment because of completing a contract, and 18 resigned. Another 663 employees have an approved medical or religious exemption.
Regents weigh in
Vice Chair Amy Carvalho, who led the meeting, said mandatory vaccinations are the most effective manner to ensure the health, safety and welfare of campus communities.
The board must support campus leaders as they navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
Carter said he’s a proponent of vaccinations, but has an ethical problem with firing employees when students aren’t required to be vaccinated. He said he doesn’t think the current policy is best.
Brooks said he takes issue with even one employee being fired for not getting vaccinated when the student mandate has been dropped.
It’s about equitable policy for all, rather than for some, he added.
Boylan said if someone supports getting vaccinated, “then why worry about getting COVID from anyone else?” It’s foolish for the higher education system to lose employees with education and knowledge who don’t want to be vaccinated, he said.
Perkins said her concern is that the code revision mandating employee COVID-19 vaccinations is permanent and the pandemic is a fluid situation.
She said she’d rather see the use of all mitigation factors available — including daily testing, masks and distancing — instead of just having “one hammer and one nail.”
An NSHE official said the code provision as written says the employee vaccination requirements will be reviewed again by the board prior to the start of the fall 2022 semester.
On Thursday, regents also voted 10-2 on an agenda item that called for Chancellor Melody Rose and Board Chair Carol Del Carlo to write a letter on behalf of the board to Sisolak, the State Board of Health and state legislature in support of a student COVID-19 vaccination mandate. Boylan and Brooks opposed.
In August, the State Board of Health voted unanimously to approve a 120-day emergency regulation that required NSHE’s more than 100,000 students taking spring semester in-person classes to show proof of vaccination.
Students were required to comply by Nov. 1, but technically had until January when registration ended. Now, unvaccinated students can register for spring classes.
Public comments
Gov. Steve Sisolak issued a statement Wednesday urging regents to continue with the employee vaccination mandate.
The Nevada Faculty Alliance started an online petition Monday in support of the mandate that garnered nearly 3,300 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.
And all eight college and university presidents sent a letter Monday to Rose and regents expressing their desire to keep the mandate.
“We believe that rolling back the employee COVID vaccine requirement adds to the climate of uncertainty and creates complex administrative and serious safety consequences,” the presidents wrote.
The board received more than 400 written public comments for Thursday’s meeting, Carvalho said. It also heard a couple dozen public comments from meeting sites in Las Vegas, Reno and Elko.
Kent Ervin, president of the Nevada Faculty Alliance, said a shared goal is to return to full in-person instruction safely and vaccinations are the best line of defense.
With a surge in cases due to omicron variant, now is not the time to backtrack, he said.
Laura Naumann, a faculty member at Nevada State College, said she wanted to express extreme disappointment and anger at the Legislative Commission’s decision that allowed the student mandate to lapse.
Faculty want to get back to classrooms, but want themselves and students to be safe, she said.
The board should be discussing plans for a safe spring reopening, she said, and taking steps such as reintroducing flexible work arrangements and providing N95 masks for employees.
Naumann said she’s deeply worried about going back to the classroom without those assurances.
Many public comments were from University of Nevada, Reno and UNLV students who spoke in favor of vaccination mandates.
Abbey Pike, a UNR student, said she’s in strong support of an employee vaccination mandate.
The remote environment is extremely difficult for students and faculty, she said, and many are looking forward to an in-person spring semester.
But that can only be accomplished by maintaining strong safeguards against the virus, she said, noting there’s no doubt that vaccines are safe and effective.
A couple of students, though, were opposed, as well as two public commenters in Elko.
Zachary Johnigan, student body president at the College of Southern Nevada, said there are students at the college who aren’t in favo
Humans should have the right to choose what put into their body and that shouldn’t interfere with their right to pursue an education, he said.
In a Thursday statement to the Review-Journal, he said his initial reaction to the Legislative Commission’s decision not to continue the student vaccination mandate was shock.
“After their decision settled in my mind, I started to believe that something like this was bound to happen,” he said. “The students and community have been divided on the whole topic of COVID-19 vaccinations from the beginning.”
Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.
