COMMENCEMENT EDITION
City Times
sdcitytimes.com
Covering the San Diego City College community since 1945
Volume 75, Issue 2 May 21, 2021
your shot at educat ion SDCCD joins uc, cSU campuses in mandating COVID-19vaccines for B Y K ATI A P E CH E NK I NA News Editor
T
he San Diego Community College Distr ict will r equir e students, faculty and staff to get vaccinated against COVI D - 19 for in- per son lear ning for the fall semester, accor ding to a statement shar ed on social media on May 18. ?I n consider ation of the decisions among higher education institutions in San Diego County, the concer ns and pr efer ences stated by employees and students, and the r ate of COVI D 19 infections in our communities, the San Diego Community College Distr ict will r equir e employees and students to be vaccinated in or der to wor k, take classes, and r eceive services in- per son dur ing the fall 2021 semester,? wr ote SDCCD in a statement posted on its website and shar ed on Twitter. Histor ically, community colleges have not mandated vaccinations, accor ding to Dotti Cor dell, dir ector of Student Health Ser vices at San Diego City College, in an interview with City Times Media ear lier this month. ?Now we ar e in a differ ent wor ld of this pandemic,? she said. Still, she believed the decision would not be easy for distr ict officials. ?I ?m sur e they ar e weighing the pr os and cons and pr obably tr ying to evaluate (what) is in our students? best inter est and in the community?s best inter est,? Cor dell said. ?Their number one concer n is the safety of staff, students and faculty, and has been all along, especially since the
pandemic star ted.? The vaccination r equir ement will be limited by medical or r eligious exemptions, accor ding to the statement. The Distr ict?s decision is contingent on the Feder al Dr ug Administr ation fully author izing COVI D - 19 vaccines, and it is anticipated that one or mor e vaccines will be author ized by fall 2021. This announcement comes almost a month after a number of univer sities, including the entir e Califor nia State Univer sity and Univer sity of Califor nia systems, announced they would r equir e vaccination for COVI D -19. The decision of UC and Cal State systems will impact over one million students. Joseph Castr o, CSU chancellor, called the joint effor t ?the most compr ehensive and consequential univer sity plan for
fal l in-personl earning COVI D - 19 vaccines in the countr y.? Both systems ar e planning to have pr imar ily inper son classes. Such mandates have been a widely discussed topic acr oss higher education, but the r equir ement is not new. Univer sities and colleges have been challenged with the legality of vaccinations and var ious health tests for a centur y. I n 1925, in the case of Wallace v. Regents of Univer sity, when a student did not have a r equir ed smallpox vaccine and sued the University of Califor nia, the judge upheld the mandate. The UC system, like many other s, alr eady r equir es students to get measles, mumps and r ubella; var icella (chicken pox); tetanus, diphther ia and pertussis; meningococcal vaccines, and tuber culosis scr eening. These r equir ements ar e implemented to pr event the spr ead of contagious diseases in classr ooms and dor ms. But at this point, all thr ee cor onavir us vaccines have only been gr anted emergency use author ization by the
amongthecampusesthat haveannouncedmandates, asof presstime:
A gr owing number of Sout her n Califor nia colleges and univer sit ies will have vaccine mandat es for fall. Google Map by Kat ia Pechenkina
Food and Dr ug Administr ation, and only one, the Pfizer- BioNTech, applied for full appr oval ear lier this month. L ike for SDCCD students, the vaccination r equir ement will be limited by medical or r eligious exemptions, accor ding to the pr ess r elease issued by the CSU on Apr il 22. ?Ther e will always have to be exceptions for people who feel, or their doctor feels, that they have medical exemptions or exceptions based on r eligion,'' Cor dell said. ?The mandate would never be a 100 per cent, no matter who tr ies to institute something.? An inter n at City College, whose name is being withheld due to concer ns of the possible impact on their employment, shar ed their concer ns with City Times Media. ?I will say I ?m fully vaccinated and that was my choice befor e it was mandator y,? they wr ote in a dir ect message on I nstagr am. ?I am also ver y awar e that the situation is a double edge swor d. My child also r eceived the vaccine & tr ust me I ?m wor r ied for what that will mean in the futur e for him. Did I make the r ight choice? We won?t know definitely until 5- 10 year s fr om now.? To watch a news package on this story produced by CTTV multimedia journalist Katia Pechenkina, scan the QR code.