Interim University of Alaska President Pat Pitney announced today that the University of Alaska Fairbanks will not be mandating vaccines for Covid-19 among faculty, staff, contractors, and students.
Pitney was being asked by some members of UAF’s education community to enact such a mandate at the Fairbanks campus but has decided not to — for now.
“After discussion with leaders throughout the UA system, I have decided to maintain the existing process for specific programmatic vaccine requirements and not require COVID-19 vaccination for Fairbanks-based faculty, staff and in-person students at this time,” she wrote.
Supervisors can request vaccination requirements for specific situations or environments.
“While I wholeheartedly believe that vaccination is our best line of defense against COVID-19, and encourage all students and employees to get vaccinated, other considerations led me to this decision,” Pitney wrote.
She said that there is an increased potential for a federal vaccination requirement in the near future that could change her decision.
“We are already receiving information about targeted federal requirements, and we will apply those as necessary. However, it appears likely that we may need to institute a systemwide vaccination requirement to comply with one or more of our federal funding agencies. It makes sense to hold implementation of any broad vaccination requirement until we have more clarity on the extent and scope of the anticipated federal vaccination requirements,” she said.
Meanwhile, she reminded the university campuses to mask as required, stay home when sick, and help to keep infection rates at a manageable level.
