Will Wofford require students to be vaccinated?

With questions circulating about the vaccine phases, levels at Wofford and everything to do with the pandemic, many Wofford students are left wondering about the future of our campus and community. 

According to Dr. Lisa Lefebvre, Director of Employee Wellness and Medical Services, Wofford is taking careful steps to move forward. Lefebvre said that Wofford is working alongside local healthcare providers and bases the decision of how Wofford should operate off of their advice. 

“It is based on many factors, including the number of quarantine and isolation spaces available on campus, the number of COVID-19 cases in the community and how many local hospital beds are available.”Lefebvre said of Wofford’s decision to operate on Level Two. “We continue to evaluate the COVID(-19) situation daily and are hopeful that, if members of the community continue to follow the guidelines, that we can continue to gather per the guidelines and remain on campus.”

Wofford’s Wellness Center’s Instagram, @woffordwellness, reposted a post made by Johns-Hopkins, stating the CDC’s new guidelines for fully vaccinated individuals. Some of the new regulations would include gathering with no masks and no distance between two fully vaccinated households, gathering indoors with low-risk unvaccinated individuals, skipping quarantine after exposure if asymptomatic, visiting other vaccinated people from the US and continuing to keep good hand hygiene. 

As far as the requirements for vaccinations thus far and how they may evolve over time, Dr. Lefebvre said that there are currently no requirements for vaccinations.

“We are evaluating the real possibility of requiring the COVID(-19) vaccine for all members of our community by researching what the best practices are in this area,” she said.“The Wellness Center is working with DHEC and the CDC to get the vaccine and expects to have doses before the end of the academic year. We will follow DHEC’s phases of administration when accepting appointments.” 

Individual instructors, however, have started to make requirements for their own safety in events. 

Robert Moss, McCalla Professor of Biology,  said, “Reverend Robinson and I have decided that anyone registering to take our interim trip next January to Israel and Jordan must be fully vaccinated for COVID(-19), as well as for flu.  A single student getting sick abroad with either of those diseases would have a major impact to the entire project.”