Employees and Protestors React to UA Vaccine Mandate

TUSCALOOSA, ALA– The University of Alabama announced earlier last week that all its full-time employees must be vaccinated. The announcement comes weeks after President Biden signed an executive order requiring any federal municipality employing more than 100 people to mandate and administer the vaccine. Many campus and community groups spoke out against the University’s decision and joined in protest last Thursday.

(Laura Wilson stands with her son, Ethan, to protest UA’s decision to mandate vaccines. Picture by Eli Adams/JCM315.)

The group spoke out against the vaccine mandate and urged the university and local governments to emphasize the freedom to get the vaccine.

Steven Poole, the organizer of the demonstration, spoke on the importance of having medical freedom.

“We have set a standard in this country to have personal freedoms when it comes to choices like [the vaccine] that should be on the individual to choose whether or not to get vaccinated,” according to Poole.

Another of the protestors in attendance was Meredith Shaw, a university medical nurse who is against the mandate.

“I am not telling anyone not to get vaccinated; I’m vaccinated. But it’s important to stand up against any mandate and call out the federal government when they try to impose on medical freedoms.”

The University has been put into a compromising situation; they receive federal grants and scholarships, so if they do not mandate the vaccine, they would risk losing almost 3 million dollars in federal aid from students alone.

“We have been talking about this option for months,” Dr. Myron Pope, the dean of students at the University, revealed in an interview Monday. “We decided if someone were going to [mandate the vaccine], it would have to be the Federal government to do it.” Dr. Pope stated.

But along with this mandate rose other questions, “We still are discussing how to treat our student employees and whether or not they fall under the umbrella of the mandate.”

When asked about the use of religious exemptions and if the University respects those who will not get vaccinated due to religious beliefs, Dr. Pope gave the University’s official stance on religious exemption, “That still is a factor we have to account for, to this point we have looked at it on a case-by-case basis, but public health is separate from religion given the circumstances.”

The University is continuing its vaccine mandate among employees, per the federal government's request. It is unsure if Alabama Governor Kay Ivey’s recent efforts to stop the federal mandate will affect the University’s official position.