This week, more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students descended on Charlottesville in preparation for the first week of UVA’s fall semester. The two largest spikes in COVID cases in the city occurred during the first two weeks of the fall semester in 2020 and the first two weeks of the spring semester in 2021.
Despite this, UVA is anticipating a “normal” semester. Students were required to submit proof of vaccination by July 1. Currently, 96.6 percent of UVA students are vaccinated, including 97.1 percent of students living on Grounds. Of those students who are unvaccinated, 335 permanent waivers were granted to those unable to receive a vaccination due to medical or religious reasons, and 184 temporary waivers were granted to students unable to be vaccinated over the summer but who intend to get vaccinated as soon as they return to Grounds.
UVA made headlines this week when it announced that 238 students, less than 1 percent of enrolled students, had been disenrolled for failing to meet the vaccination requirement. Of those 238 students, only 49 were enrolled in classes. According to UVA spokesman Brian Coy, the university reached out to these students multiple times before they were disenrolled.
If the students want to return to Grounds, they have until August 25 to comply and re-enroll for fall semester. Students may also choose to return in the spring, but only if they complete the vaccination requirement.
Students were not the only members of the UVA community required to be vaccinated this fall. All faculty and staff were expected to be vaccinated by the start of the fall semester. Currently, 92 percent of UVA’s academic division is fully vaccinated, including 96 percent of teaching and research faculty.
However, it is unknown how many contract workers, such as those in food service, on the custodial staff, and in child care centers have been vaccinated. Because the workers are contracted through third-party companies, the university cannot require vaccinations for these workers. On September 1, an executive directive from Governor Ralph Northam will go into effect, requiring contractors to disclose their vaccination status to their employers.
Everyone entering a UVA property is required to wear a mask indoors unless actively eating or drinking or when alone in an enclosed space like an office until September 6. Masks are not required in common spaces in residence halls, but they are required on buses. Unvaccinated students, faculty, and staff are required to take a weekly COVID test and wear a mask when indoors, outdoors, and in common spaces.
“The entire community—faculty, staff, and students—is responsible for enforcing the masking requirement,” says UVA spokesman Wes Hester. “It is a shared responsibility. If necessary, disciplinary action would be contemplated for repeat offenders or anyone who refuses to comply.”
Some students have petitioned for the school to continue the regular prevalence testing that it conducted last year, especially after a raft of false positives among Rice University students sent a wave of panic through the higher education world.
“In the event of new cases and clusters, we plan to implement targeted prevalence testing to mitigate further spread,” Hester says. “Unvaccinated people who are on Grounds will be subject to at least weekly prevalence testing.”
Employees, faculty, staff, and students who work in or enter UVA Health properties, the medical school, nursing school, or Health Sciences Library are required to log their symptoms in UVA’s Hoos Health Check app every morning.