The University of Pittsburgh is prepared to refund tuition to students it “disenrolled” for failing to obtain a COVID-19 shot and said both the students and employees now barred from campus buildings can be reinstated if they show proof of vaccination.
“We continue to work with those who are trying to come into compliance, including those who have lost access to buildings [by having their ID deactivated] or select IT resources, so that they are permitted to re-enroll for classes and/or regain access, with minimal disruption to their Pitt experience,” Pitt spokesman David Seldin said late Tuesday.
“To do so, individuals will need to either provide proof of vaccination or apply for and receive an approved exemption.
“Tuition refunds for any student who is disenrolled and chooses not to take steps to return to compliance and re-enroll will be managed under the standard tuition adjustment process,” he added. “Employees who choose not to take steps to return to compliance may be subject to additional disciplinary action in accordance with the university’s disciplinary guidelines.”
His statement linked to a tuition refund policy for students who resign from an academic term.
The move by Pitt intensified what already was a building drama in Pennsylvania about who should get the shot and what institutions of higher education can do to balance individual freedoms and the need to keep campuses safe.
Classes at Pitt began Monday, but a shelter-in-place rule means most instruction will be remote in the semester’s early days.
About 34,000 students and 15,500 faculty and staff are enrolled at or work on the main Oakland campus and branches at Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown and Titusville. The university thus far has declined to specify the number of students and employees who are effectively barred from campus classes or buildings.
A campaign through most of 2021 encouraging vaccinations, plus a mandate enacted in December, have yielded a vaccination rate of 96% across Pitt’s five campuses. In rough numbers, that suggests an unvaccinated population of less than 2,000, although some of those may have been granted exemptions from vaccination for religious or medical reasons. Others could be working toward compliance.
The spike in COVID-19 cases tied to the highly transmissible omicron variant has hit colleges and universities at the start of the spring semester, compounding worries in a nearly 2-year-old pandemic. Vaccinations and policies requiring them have have divided the public, including college campuses.
There is precedent for schools requiring that students be vaccinated, but a federal rule covering workers is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
A number of private universities in the Pittsburgh region, among them Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne universities, require the shot. However, the State System of Higher Education has said it cannot require vaccinations across its 14 state-owned universities without an act of the Republican-controlled state Legislature.
Pitt, though public, is not state-owned. It is among four state-related universities, a distinct tier within Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth system of campuses.
Bill Schackner: bschackner@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1977 and on Twitter @Bschackner
First Published: January 11, 2022, 11:46 p.m.
