The Reveille 8-2-21

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NO SHOT Mond ay, Au g u s t 2 , 2 021

LSU faculty, admin at odds after higherups mislead campus in vaccine mandate rhetoric.

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An LSU professor’s research led him to the Student Health Center, where he believes he discovered a cemetery where slaves are buried.

SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

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New Orleans rapper Juvenile’s “Back That Thang Up” that was released back in 1999 got a revised edition that was released July 6 called “Vax That Thang Up.”

OPINION

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“LSU’s legal qualms and political fears will not keep its students and faculty safe from a deadly virus. It’s dishonest messaging especially won’t.”

L SU Re ve i l le.co m @l s u r e ve i l le

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THE DELTA DILEMMA Admin scrambles after rapid rise in cases. Faculty frustrated by response.

BY NICK FREWIN & CADEN LIM @itsnickfrewin & @cadenlim5 LSU has long maintained that state law prohibits universities from requiring students, faculty or staff to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. But colleges across the state need only Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) approval to mandate the vaccine.

LDH has approved mandates for all four schools that have requested them, LDH Director of Communications Aly Neel said: Tulane, Loyola, Xavier and Dillard. Universities — public or private — may request LDH permission to mandate COVID vaccines under Louisiana Revised Statute 17:170, Neel said.

Neel said the revised statute is “more extensive than required by the schedule approved by the Office of Public Health but supported by current CDC recommendations.”

“We are working closely with the Board of Regents and individual institutions to encourage vaccinations on college campuses,” Neel said.

The LSU Board of Supervisors’ most forceful action to date was at their meeting on June 18 when they passed a resolution, urging the LDH to add the COVID vaccines to the schedule of required immunizations for all public schools. The board, however, did not send the request to the LDH until Tuesday, the Louisiana Illuminator reported.

LSU Director of Communications Ernie Ballard cited a letter the university received from Attorney General Jeff Landry in stating that a vaccine mandate was illegal. Ballard pointed to a different section in the same statute that Neel cited, an excerpt that said “mandated vaccines will be according to a schedule published by the Louisiana department of public health.” LDH has not yet included the COVID vaccine in its schedule, but will approve a request to mandate the shots, Neel said.

Landry’s letter said LSU should not require vaccines while it is

SAVANNAH ORGERON / The Reveille

A mask sits on a bench on Oct. 15 at Campus Lake. still under Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA. Landry highlighted that people’s religious beliefs and concerns for long-term effects are protected under federal code to decline vaccinations.

“Louisiana law recognizes the right of students to be free from ‘creed’ discrimination, which includes discriminiation based on religious beliefs and nonreligious beliefs,” Landry said. “Louisiana requires postsecondary institutions to recognize religious and other personal reasons as exemptions to vaccine mandates.”

The renewed fight over mandatory COVID vaccines began when the LSU Health and Medical Advisory Committee sent a letter to administration Friday outlining their recommendations for the upcoming semester.

“Because LSU is not able to mandate vaccines due to state law,” it said, “we must continue to strongly encourage all students to get vaccinated before returning to campus.”

On Sunday, the university Faculty Council responded with a letter, written in conjunction with several lawyers, that said the university was wrong in their conclusion that a vaccine mandate would be illegal. The state government is waiting on the federal

government to take action, be it through a revision of FDA policy or a federal mask edict, the letter said. In turn, LSU is waiting on the state government, while, in the meantime, a fourth wave of the pandemic builds. The letter also said that the university has made it likely that LSU will have to return to COVID protocols that were in place in the Fall 2020 semester.

“The ability to responsibly host super-spreader events such as LSU football games is substantially limited in the absence of a vaccine mandate,” the letter says.

“Silence and inaction are not a responsible response to an immediate, substantial and largely containable threat to the health and safety of members of its community.”

The advisory committee held a meeting Monday to present their safety recommendations for the upcoming academic semester to administration and faculty.

Faculty leaders left the meeting with more questions than answers, participants said, still far apart on the mandate issue and basic safety protocols. But the committee is working on revising recommendations based on the feedback and will hold an open forum with faculty on Thursday.

The advisory committee made recommendations that the university’s administration take numerous measures to ensure the safety of students and staff in the upcoming academic semester.

These measures included universal mask requirements around campus and that all on-campus residents should be required to get tested for COVID-19. Faculty members submitted comments to the committee regarding the proposed recommendations, citing that “a simple mask mandate is insufficient.”

Students should have access to recordings of all their classes in case of a COVID-19 related absence, according to the advisory committee. Faculty members raised concerns about this recommendation, arguing that recording all classes is “highly time intensive” and that many classes at the university are not easily recorded.

The increasing rates of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in Louisiana has brought concerns about the safety of campus life returning to pre-COVID conditions. Associate Dean of the Louisiana School of Public Health and member of the advisory committee Ed Trapido stressed the possible dangers of the Delta variant to the public.

“It’s a public health issue.

The most important thing is the health and safety of the students and faculty,” Trapido said. ““[The Delta variant] is too dangerous.

We have to get it under control.”

But, Trapido added, disagreements over public health policy have hamstrung efforts to keep the public safe. On July 28, LDH reported an 134-patient increase in COVID hospitalizations, bringing the total state number to 1,524. With the fall semester less than a month away, only around 30% of LSU students have reported to the school that they are vaccinated.

“I have learned this year that public health is political,” Trapido said. “I wish it were not that way.”

Madelyn Cutrone and Reed Darcey contributed to this report.

Louisiana Universities’ COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates June 8: Tulane receives LDH approval to mandate COVID vaccines.

June 18: LSU Board of Supervisors passes resolution, urging LDH to add the COVID vaccine to their required immunization list. General counsel and President Galligan say a mandate would violate state law.

June 23: Dillard and Xavier request and receive LDH approval to mandate COVID vaccines.

July 23: LSU medical advisory committee releases its recommendations for the fall semester.

July 25: LSU Faculty Council writes response to each recommendation, attached letter by lawyers who say a mandate is legal.

July 26: Advisory committee presents its recommendations to the faculty.

July 27: LSU sends the resolution that it passed over a month before to LDH July 29: LSU holds private faculty forum. Administration doubles down, faculty express frustration.

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NEWS COVID CONCERNS

LSU administration responds to vaccine concerns at faculty forum

BY MADELYN CUTRONE @madelyncutrone Top LSU administrators seemed reluctant to implement a vaccine mandate at a faculty Q & A meeting Thursday, while numerous employees voiced their outrage and concern at the possibility they would return to classes in the fall with students who were not vaccinated against COVID. President Tate began the meeting by presenting both sides of the vaccination argument, saying LSU needed to respect each individuals’ choice.

“Chances are if you had the vaccine you’re probably one of the vocal ones calling for others to take it and have the vaccine be mandated,” Tate said. “You decided to mitigate your risk by assuming the risk of an acquired immunity and approach that has been approved on emergency basis.”

“Others in our community are applying their own risk mitigation strategy, and they’re willing to accept the risk of exposure and wait on FDA for approval before they accept vaccination,” Tate went on to explain. “The point is, people have their own risk mitigation strategies, and we have to respect that while preparing to lower our collective risk.”

Vice President of Legal Affairs and General Counsel Winston DeCuir spoke next, echoing similar key points. He focused heavily on giving faculty and students the freedom to choose their own

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COVID-19

Universities’ requests for vaccine mandates approved in hours

BY NICK FREWIN @itsnickfrewin

schools across the country have required at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.

Tate said the university will continue to “make the vaccine freely available for those who want it.”

Once the vaccine is taken off of emergency use authorization and fully approved by the FDA, LDH can add it to the schedule of seven other mandatory vaccines in Louisiana. Until then, LSU will implement advisory restrictions but will likely not mandate the

It took the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) fewer than 12 hours to approve multiple requests from Louisiana universities to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations, emails obtained by The Reveille show.

Four Louisiana colleges sought government approval to mandate COVID vaccinations. Universities looking to mandate COVID vaccinations had to request LDH permission under Louisiana Revised Statute 17:170. All the schools had to do was send an email.

Loyola, Dillard and Xavier all sent formal requests to the LDH on June 23, and each university had their request accepted later that day. Tulane was granted approval by the LDH to mandate vaccinations for students June 8.

The LDH cited the statute in approving the requests. The department then provided a disclaimer, writing their green light “should not be interpreted as a legal opinion as to the legality of any action you are taking in this regard.” An LDH spokesperson said that the department makes no distinction

see CONCERN, page 4

see MANDATE, page 4

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

People stand in line while filling out paperwork on Mar. 14, 2021 at the Tiger Stadium vaccination site. medical treatment and how that merged with their constitutional rights.

“This COVID pandemic has caused every state school in this country to evaluate an age old question: When is government interference with a liberty interest justified?” DeCuir said, explaining that LSU has been reviewing the due process clause of the 14th Amendment since last March when the pandemic began.

“The freedom to choose your own medical treatment is one of those fundamental rights in each decision we’ve made in this pan-

demic.”

Based on the nature of the intrusion and the severity of the potential outcome, DeCuir says LSU is not ready to mandate a vaccine because it could infringe on constitutional liberty interests. The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), however, approved vaccine mandates at four private universities and said it does not distinguish between private and public institutions.

Faculty members brought up Indiana University as an example, saying that a judge upheld their vaccine mandate. Over 600

RESEARCH

LSU professor says Student Health Center built atop plantation

BY NICK FREWIN @itsnickfrewin The university’s Student Health Center (SHC) was built atop a cemetery for enslaved plantation workers, according to an LSU professor.

Geography professor Andrew Sluyter has been conducting geographical research at the university for years, and with that has come a vast knowledge of the campus’ history. So when reports of slave cemeteries on campuses of multiple southern universities materialized, Slutyer theorized that the same could be true on the Baton Rouge campus.

“I was reading through newspaper articles about different universities in the South finding these old slave cemeteries on their campus,” Sluyter said. “So, I started looking at the old maps, and sure enough there was a

slave cemetery right on the edge of what would become LSU property.”

Sluyter established the existence of the cemetery by reviewing century old documents from surveyors who worked with architects after the university’s purchase of the current campus grounds in 1918.

“When the surveyors surveyed this in 1921, it was right after LSU bought it and they wanted a survey of the campus before they decided what to build here,” Sluyter said. “And that’s the outline of the cemetery that he drew.”

The university purchased the site for the current campus from the Gartness plantation in 1918 and construction started in 1922, however it wouldn’t be until 1932 that the university was completely moved from the previous downtown campus.

As the student body population rapidly increased in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s, the university deemed necessary to construct a university hospital, which is now known as the Student Health Center.

“In 1938 they started building the Student Health Center,” Sluyter said. “And in June when they put the first shovels to the ground, they found a bunch of graves.”

Sluyter had an undergraduate intern, Sarah Seivold, work for him by looking through Hill Memorial Library to look through all the editions of The Reveille from the 20’s and 30’s to find any mention of the cemetery.

“At the very end, like on the last week, we found an article that talked about unearthed bodies here,” Seivold said.

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COURTESY OF ANDREW SLUYTER

Monday, August 2, 2021

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ALUMNI

2 LSU grads give total of $110,000 to school’s wildlife hospital program.

Susan Belt, who graduated from the veterinary school in 1998, made a $10,000 gift to the wildlife hospital’s support fund.

She owns a veterinary clinic in Bryant, Arkansas.

People bring about 1,200 injured animals a year to the wildlife hospital. Veterinarians are able to fully rehabilitate and release 40 percent of them.

The wildlife hospital relies on private donations to help cover the cost of food, housing, and veterinary procedures and treatments. Costs vary greatly with species and type of injury, ranging from $50 for basic care to more than $3,000 for orthopedic surgery.

The LSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital is located on Skip Bertman Drive & River Road.

vaccine. A final decision has not yet been announced but Tate said it would come by next week.

Representatives from LSU’s Health and Medical Advisory Committee spoke at the meeting, outlining their recommendations for the fall.

Masks and face coverings should be universally required indoors, including in all classrooms, as well as on campus transportation.

All on-campus residents should be required to get entry tested for COVID-19 prior to arriving on campus. Testing will also be required in residence halls when wastewater shows a high detection of the virus.

Physical distancing is strongly encouraged where masks are not currently required. This includes continuation of signage at entries and exits of classroom and buildings to discourage congregating in these spaces.

Because LSU is not able to mandate vaccinations due to state law, we must continue to strongly encourage all students to get vaccinated prior to arriving on cam-

pus. Those who have been vaccinated should self-report through the vaccination survey.

Appropriate quarantine and isolation protocols should be in place.

All classes should be recorded and available for students who may miss class due to COVID-19 related issues. This is to discourage ill individuals from coming to class.

All classrooms should have additional HEPA filtration installed prior to commencement of the semester (in process).

Continue to utilize the Daily Symptom Checker as a way of flagging potentially symptomatic individuals and providing testing direction.

These recommendations have not been approved by administration but are being taken into consideration, Tate said.

Many faculty members submitted questions in advance.

Some voiced their concerns in the Zoom chat box. Concerns about returning to the classroom with unvaccinated individuals who could be spreading the virus were most prominent, but questions about sick leave and remote

work were also raised.

No special provisions will be made for faculty or staff who have to quarantine or take off work to care for sick family members: They will have to use their normally allotted sick or annual leave. Remote work is a possibility, but not guaranteed. LSU, as a state institution, is following the model set by other government agencies, one administrator on the call said.

Tate concluded the meeting by thanking the faculty and staff for voicing their concerns, saying he and his administration would be reading the comments carefully and taking them into consideration.

“Prevention science, as most of us know focuses on evidence based strategies to lower risk, and to enhance protective factors,” Tate said. “While attaining and achieving the operational goals of the organization, I’m committed to taking the advice of this panel of great advisors who have epidemiological public health as well as biological emphasis biological backgrounds to apply them to help us achieve our organizational aims for the fall.”

MANDATE, from page 3

GRAVES, from page 3

between public and private institutions in approving requests.

LSU’s Board of Supervisors passed a resolution June 18 urging the LDH to mandate vaccines for all public schools, but waited until Tuesday, July 27, to send the request.

The Reveille covered the discovery in a late June 1938 summer edition, documenting when university workers digging a test hole at the site of the current Student Health Center found human remains. The workers dug into three separate graves and discov-

ing, according to Sluyter.

While there is no way to identify the bodies discovered in 1938 or any others that were buried in the cemetery, Sluyter strongly believes the evidence suggests the cemetery was used to bury slaves.

“Of course, there’s no exact way of knowing who is buried here for sure,” Sluyter said. ““But we do know that all the owners of Magnolia Mound Plantation and this plantation were buried at Highland Cemetery.”

After the workers discovered the human remains in 1938 and photos were taken for The Reveille, there is no documentation of what happened to the remains. The loss of these alongside the lack of documentation for the burial grounds of slaves means Sluyter can’t definitively pinpoint when these graves were originally dug.

“The graves could date to any time between 1770 and 1918,” Sluyter said. “There’s no way of

ASSOCIATED PRESS BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Two Louisiana State University graduates have given the veterinary school’s wildlife hospital a total of $110,000.

Richard P. Sivicek of Illinois gave $100,000 to establish a fund to pay for treatment and food for injured and resident wildlife, the School of Veterinary Medicine said in a news release Wednesday.

He graduated in 1969 with a degree in agriculture and has endowed scholarships in that school since retiring from the police department in Oaklawn, a Chicago suburb. He also had donated to the University of Illinois’ wildlife

CONCERN, from page 3

“The graves could date to any time between 1770 and 1918. There’s no way of knowing..”

ANDREW SLUYER

LSU Geography professor

ABBY KIBLER / The Reveille

The bell tower at night.

ered several bones and parts of two human skulls.

At any given point in the plantation’s history there would have been 50 to 100 slaves work-

THE REVEILLE ARCHVES

Recomendations for the fall - Masks should be worn indoors - COVID-19 testing prior to arrival on campus - Physical distancing where masks not required - Encourage students to get vaccinated - Proper quarantine protocol in place - Online class option for students with COVID-19 -All classrooms should have additional HEPA fitration installed prior to classes starting - Continued use of the daily symptom checker

COURTESY OF ANDREW SLUYTER

A Reveille article from 1938 details the discovery of the graves

SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT People wait in long lines to get over-the-top milkshakes at new Baton Rouge location THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — To say The Yard Milkshake Bar serves over-the-top confections is a bit of an understatement.

This is the description for its Tiger Deaux milkshake unique to Baton Rouge: a concoction of cookie dough ice cream with purple and gold marshmallow cream served in a vanilla iced jar rolled in purple and gold sprinkles and topped with purple and gold whipped cream, a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough, more sprinkles and a purple tiger paw.

Depictions of its customer favorites Cookie Monster and Strawberries and Cream Cheesecake also run on and on. But then that’s true for just about all of the gourmet milkshakes and sundaes, ice cream flavors, floats and specialty bowls. And there’s a “secret menu” with more out-of-this world flavor combinations.

Everything is so over the top, you can’t even see the top from here.

People have been lining up out the door — even in the rain — to get a taste ever since Marc and Tracy Couvillion opened The Yard on July 9 in Highland Park Marketplace, 18303 Perkins Road.

The Couvillions’ shop is the first Louisiana location of the The Yard franchise, which was started in Gulf Shores, Alabama, in 2017

by Logan and Chelsea Green. You might recall seeing them on ABC’s “Shark Tank.” There are now locations in 10 states.

The Couvillions visited the Alabama shop in 2019.

“They had a waiting time of probably over an hour just to get in,” Marc Couvillion said. “And it was worth it.”

They were so impressed, they started thinking about opening a franchise in Baton Rouge.

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COMMUNITY

Mother opens Joe’s Grill to honor son, victim of gun violence

BY ASHLEY LATCHA @ashleylatcha

COURTESY OF ASSOCIATED PRESS

Customers are served at The Yard Milkshake Bar. “We just kicked the idea around for a year or two, then we went back to Gulf Shores in 2020 during COVID,” Marc Couvillion said. “There was still a line outside the door.”

The couple was sold, and now the Couvillions and their 35 employees are serving up a long menu of gourmet milkshakes, which are almost as fun to watch being made as they are to eat.

Take the popular Cookie Monster: Into the tall Mason jar (which you can keep) goes a drizzle of blue and chocolate marshmallow sauce. Then chocolate icing goes around the neck of the jar, which is dipped in cookie crisp pieces.

Meanwhile, blue cookie monster ice cream is mixed with milk in a blender, then poured into the jar and topped by whipped cream, chocolate and blue marshmallow cream drizzle, cookie crisp pieces and a cookie dough sandwich.

You will definitely need both a straw and spoon to tackle this towering dessert, just as you will for the Strawberries & Cream Cheesecake milkshake, which

comes in a vanilla iced jar dipped in graham cracker crumbs filled with a shake made of strawberry cheesecake ice cream, then topped by whipped cream, strawberry topping, crushed graham crackers and a slice of cheesecake.

For little princesses, there’s the Mermaid milkshake made with birthday cake ice cream with pink marshmallow drizzle inside a teal marshmallow cream dipped jar rolled in mermaid candy jewels. It’s topped with whipped cream, mermaid candy jewels, a rock candy stick and completed with a mermaid tail.

But wait, there’s more.

We’re offering a Mardi Gras shake right now,” Tracy Couvillion said. “When we announced that we were opening, they already had a shake called the Yardi Gras.

So, that’s how we announced the Louisiana opening.”

The Yardi Gras shake will be available until the end of July and brought back next year during Mardi Gras season. The shake is made with cinnamon ice cream

with purple, green and gold marshmallow drizzle and sprinkles. It’s topped with whipped cream and a piece of king cake.

The milkshakes run $15 for the pint size; $20 for the quart size.

Milkshake not your thing? No worries. The Yard’s menu of specialty ice cream bowls have the same themes as the milkshakes or you can order a regular shake in any flavor.

“We’ll also be offering specials every month,” Tracy Couvillion said. “If there’s a holiday that month, it may be a shake that will lean toward the holiday, or if it’s summer or spring, those shakes will reflect the season.”

The Couvillions chose their Highland Marketplace location because of its customer traffic.

“It’s close to the interstate, and it’s close to the Blue Bayou Waterpark and the mall,” Marc Couvillion said.

And though the line has been extending past the front door each day, customers haven’t had to wait more than 30 minutes to get their order.

With the grand opening of Joe’s Grill taking over for the old Louie’s Cafe building, a brand new spot for homestyle cuisine is introduced to West State Street.

The new establishment owned

by Lekiedra Coleman is a bar and lounge with a comfortable atmosphere and a variety of foods to choose from, including soul food inspired dishes. Whether it be happy hour, karaoke night or taco Tuesday, each day there is something brand new to celebrate at Joe’s Grill.

For Lekiedra Coleman, Joe’s Grill is more than just a business investment. It is a part of her family as a tribute to her son, Joe. Upon losing her 17-year-old son in March to gun violence, Coleman took the opportunity to open up Joe’s Grill in order to pass on Joe’s creativity that he had in the kitchen. Coleman opens up and mentions Joe’s passion for cooking.

Joe can be found everywhere in the restaurant. His face is the logo that is found right outside of the building as well as on every menu, and his cooking techniques are being honored in the kitchen that he cannot be a part of.

“The restaurant motivates me.

It reminds me so much of him, the colors, the burgers. We make my burgers just like he made them, 100-percent ground beef,” Coleman said.

ENTERTAINMENT

Vulnerable nation should turn to Juvenile: ‘Vax That Thang Up’

BY ASHLEY LATCHA @ashleylatcha With restrictions being lifted during the emergence of the COVID-19 vaccine, getting vaccinated has been a top priority.

Getting vaccinated does not only mean gaining a barrier against a deadly virus, but it also gives everyone a pass to merge back into pre-pandemic life. However, there are still many people who have not gotten their vaccine, either by choice or by other restrictions, such as age. With these individuals still susceptible to the coronavirus, there are measures that so-called pro-vaxxers have taken to help influence those who are against it, including ce-

lebrities.

New Orleans rapper Juvenile’s “Back That Thang Up” that was released back in 1999 got a revised edition that was released on July 6 called “Vax That Thang Up.” The song holds the same flavor as the original, but includes lyrics that urge individuals to get vaccinated in order to pursue their dating and social life. The song includes Juvenile as well as Mannie Fresh and Mia X. The song promotes vaccinations and BLK, a dating app that was created for Black singles.

With new variants of the virus actively being introduced, the need for protection becomes even stronger. However, it is statistically shown that

Black and Hispanic individuals are less likely to take the vaccine, according to data by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Distrust of the vaccine is also something that is extremely widespread and common, and with history as a clear form of evidence, it can be justifiable for the Black community. The Tuskegee Study that took place from the 1930s to the early ‘70s used Black males to observe the effects of untreated syphilis and was conducted by the CDC and the United States Public Health Service. With the vaccination being pushed out at such an early, but necessary, time frame, there are skeptics who refuse treatment.

However, with the promo-

tion of vaccinations that public influencers are projecting and the dependency that society has on pop culture, vaccination rates should be expected to rise. The use of promoting wellness through such a huge platform to speak directly to a community is also something that many other celebrities should encourage.

“We don’t know what we’re facing right now, but we really do all need to be vaccinated so we can continue to do our thing and survive,” Juvenile said to Rolling Stone. “I just wanted to do something positive for my people and to stand in the front to show that I’m willing to sacrifice my life not just for me, but also for my family.”

VAX THAT THANG UP / YOUTUBE

Juvenile dances in the music video of their parody song, “Vax That Thang Up.”

OPINION

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LSU’s legal qualms, fears won’t protect campus from COVID- 19

BY THE REVEILLE EDITORIAL BOARD For months the university has told the public it can’t mandate that students receive the COVID-19 vaccine due to state law.

And for months the university has been lying, reports from earlier this week revealed.

State law does not prevent universities from issuing additional vaccine requirements, and, in fact, “Louisiana Revised Statute 17 Section 170.A(3) appears to empower LSU to require COVID-19 vaccination for students,” said the LSU Faculty Council Organizing Group in response to the university’s claims.

Colleges and universities across the nation, both public and private, have issued vaccine mandates, and courts have upheld that course of action.

“We’ve looked at the constitutional issues as to whether we could mandate it, even though it’s not included in the state law,” said the university’s legal council Winston DeCuir at the June 18 LSU Board of Supervisors meeting, where the Board voted to add the vaccine to the list of mandatory vaccines upon FDA approval. “It would be very difficult right now.”

Documents obtained by The Reveille show that Loyola, Dillard and Xavier, all private colleges in New Orleans, sent emails to the Louisiana Department of Health to request permission to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine and received approval in a matter of hours. Tulane received approval the day after their request was made.

An LDH spokesperson told The Reveille that the department makes no distinction between private and public institutions when approving requests, meaning the university could do the same.

Contrary to DeCuir’s remarks and months of baseless claims from university leadership, it would, in reality, be both easy and legal for the university to gain approval for a vaccine mandate.

But the university clearly doesn’t — and has never — wanted a mandate. And instead of being honest about that, administrators spent months lying to the students, families and community who are supposed to trust them.

Regardless of your views on a vaccine mandate, we should all be alarmed by the university’s dishonesty.

After a year that revealed disturbing miscarriages of justice on campus for sexual and domestic

COURTESY OF KATHERINE SEGHERS, LSU

William Tate IV speaks during the interview process in LSU’s presidential search on May 6. Tate was named president of LSU on May 7. violence survivors, student confidence and trust in the university have plummeted.

In February, the Galligan administration promised students that they “intend to do all [they] can to return our campus safely to preCOVID-19 operations.” And yet, a lie preventing our only shot at normalcy passed seamlessly from one administration to the next, and the university has not done nearly enough to fulfill this premature promise.

Newly-appointed university president William Tate IV — an epidemiologist who has spent his first month in office repeating this false claim about vaccine mandates — said that a primary goal of his presidency is to rebuild trust between

the administration and students.

With these latest revelations about the university’s deceit, that goal is off to a rocky start.

In an interview with TigerTV, the new president said in relation to the Title IX scandal that families and students have to believe “that [the university] is safe or that [the university] at least will help [them] stay safe.”

The vaccine lies beg the question: If students cannot even trust the university to be truthful, how can they possibly trust them with their lives, health and safety?

Exposure of the university’s dishonesty has, understandably, sparked mass outrage among faculty and staff, nearly 90% of whom voted to implement a vaccine man-

date.

A meeting between faculty, staff and the administration on Thursday did little to calm fears about students returning to campus as the Delta variant spreads rapidly through Louisiana, especially among residents aged 18-29.

With the recent reports about the New Orleans schools’ mandates, the university’s reasoning has shifted from a matter of “can’t” to “won’t.”

“This COVID pandemic has caused every state school in this country to evaluate an age-old question: When is government interference with a liberty interest justified?,” DeCuir said, in a remarkable change of narrative.

“The freedom to choose your

THE REVEILLE ARCHIVES

LSU’s Interim President, Tom Galligan sits in his office on Feb. 3, 2020 during an interview at the University Administrations building on LSU’s campus.

Editorial Policies and Procedures EDITORIAL BOARD Reed Darcey Nick Frewin

Editor in Chief News Editor

Domenic Purdy

Opinion Columnist

Claire Sullivan

Opinion Columnist

The Reveille (USPS 145-800) is written, edited and produced solely by students of Louisiana State University. The Reveille is an independent entity of the Office of Student Media within the Manship School of Mass Communication. Signed opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, The Reveille or the university. Letters submitted for publication should be sent via e-mail to opinion@lsureveille.com or delivered to B-39 Hodges Hall. They must be 400 words or less. Letters must provide a contact phone number for verification purposes, which will not be printed. The Reveille reserves the right to edit letters and guest columns for space consideration while preserving the original intent. The Reveille also reserves the right to reject any letter without notification of the author. Writers must include their full names and phone numbers. The Reveille’s editor in chief, hired every semester by the LSU Student Media Board, has final authority on all editorial decisions.

own medical treatment is one of those fundamental rights in each decision we’ve made in this pandemic,” he continued.

Tate, too, doubled down, saying, “people have their own risk mitigation strategies, and we have to respect that while preparing to lower our collective risk.”

So, what are we expected to believe?

Just last week administrators were telling us their hands were tied by state law, and that’s why we didn’t have a vaccine mandate in place. But now that they’ve been caught in a lie, they’re changing the story.

Whether it concerns lies about Title IX or pandemic policy, it seems the university thinks our attention spans are as short-lived as its lazy talking points, hoping we’ll forget about scandals as quickly as they break.

In a matter of weeks, students and faculty will be crammed into classrooms, dining halls and dorms too small to accommodate social distancing — a problem Tate said he would need four to five days to think about when asked at the Thursday meeting.

COVID-19, by many metrics, is the worst it’s ever been in Louisiana. Still, there is no “Roadmap to Fall” or any concrete decisions about pandemic protocol for the upcoming semester. The best the university has to offer is a continued, yet often ignored, mask mandate.

Soon, thousands of unvaccinated students will flood the city, putting not only the LSU community, but Baton Rouge residents at increased risk for infection.

Just a few days ago, as the positive case rate in Baton Rouge skyrocketed to 14%, almost three times the limit previously allowed for opening bars and restaurants, Tiger fans bought their football tickets for the approaching full-capacity games.

The university has not only abandoned its responsibility to its students and faculty, but also to Baton Rouge and Louisiana as a whole.

As Louisiana’s flag-ship university, the administration has failed to set an example for the rest of the state’s public schools, both in terms of integrity and public health policy.

The university lied, and we’re paying the price.

To President Emeritus Galligan, President Tate and the rest of university leadership: Was the lie worth it?

Quote of the Week “Mask off .”

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page 8 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

LSU must show courage, mandate vaccines and set example

BY A. RAVI P. RAU I have taught at LSU for 47 years and am fond of the students of several generations that I have seen before me. The most important health and safety issue for our current students for the Fall semester is the pandemic and its unfortunate resurgence around us.

I appeal to those among our students and rest of the LSU community yet to be vaccinated to talk to your physicians and get the shots.

Our ancestral generations had the courage to get their children vaccinated against polio, MMR, etc. in spite of worries over risks, especially in the beginning. They looked ahead and saw that the benefits far outweighed those risks. We are lucky that scientists provided unimaginably safe and effective vaccines against COVID: The new mRNA technology is even safer than some of those in the past that used live but attenuated virus.

As members of LSU, let us also remember President Lincoln and other visionaries who, even in the midst of the calamity of the Civil War, established A&M colleges such as ours through the Morrill Act. They were set up in every state for the good of future generations through agricultural and engineering research and education.

We owe an obligation to them now to follow the same reason, logic and vision for the future.

Both students and faculty want to see safe operations with in-person classes and without disruptions mid-semester from spikes in cases.

For this, a much larger percentage of our community than at present needs to be vaccinated, the only real defense against various variants of this disease. Vaccines are readily available on campus and free.

There is a lot of misinformation about the status as emergency FDA authorization but recent court

rulings should carry more weight.

See two stories, one on Indiana University’s court-upheld mandate, another on some Louisiana hospitals’ weariness to require the vaccine for its employees.

Indiana University prevailed.

LSU should also set an example for our state and require vaccinations.

A. Ravi. P. Rau is a professor of physics and astronomy at Louisiana State University.

On vaccines, LSU is acting like insurance company, not university

BY A. RAVI P. RAU In “LSU Administration responds to vaccine concerns at faculty forum” (Madelyn Cutrone, July 30), The Reveille quoted President Tate as saying some want vaccinations required, others not: “people have their own risk mitigation strategies, and we have to respect that while preparing to lower our collective risk.”

In reducing things to individual risk assessment, are we running an insurance company or a university?

We are an institution of higher education, so let us turn to logic

and consistency. Is it simply an individual decision on risk, and then posing it as if there is some equal balance between any stand and its opposite? Is there not a question of LSU’s responsibility to its students and the community? What is its liability when its decision leads to harm? Take LSU’s strictures on hazing or alcohol consumption in its fraternities. Someone unwilling to accept LSU’s rules for Greek life is not admitted into it, not left up to individual student.

The biggest pandemic of our times has killed hundreds of thousands in the country and still has a rising, daily toll in our town.

Does the flagship university have a responsibility, even moral, to set an example and educate citizens of our state on science and public health? Instead, we tailor even its medical advisory committee recommendations to LSU’s legal counsel.

The 14th amendment, liberty clause, due process and such weighty arguments are now trotted out. I note that this is very new, the administration so far using as excuses for inaction the status of FDA Emergency Use Authorization or the distinction between public and private universities.

G N I M CO SOON

Even after hundreds of faculty in May and even after the Board of Supervisors meeting on June 18, LSU did not even seek such approval from the Louisiana Department of Health. It is only when all that was shown to be untenable in prominent court cases such as Indiana University (also public) and a July 6 Department of Justice memo that LSU now invokes the liberty clause. For President Tate, the EUA seems still the impediment; once removed, the risk balance will suddenly be different, the 14th amendment and due process no longer standing in the way.

8.2.21

A public health doctor Leana Wen said, “We are in the middle of a national and international public health emergency; you have a right to stay unvaccinated if you want to, but if you want to be in public spaces, if you want to now be coming to work and be around other individuals, you don’t have a right to infect others with a potentially deadly disease.”

As with the Title IX scandal, is LSU’s legal advice sound and good for it?

A. Ravi. P. Rau is a professor of physics and astronomy at Louisiana State University.