UW campuses must get legislative permission to require coronavirus vaccines
(The Center Square) – The University of Wisconsin cannot require students, faculty, or campus workers to get the coronavirus vaccine on its own.
The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee on Review of Administrative Rules on Tuesday approved a new emergency rule that requires the UW System to get lawmakers’ approval before enacting any new coronavirus mandates.
Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, drove the idea.
“The legislature, through JCRAR, has told the UW System they can no longer ignore state law with regards to COVID-19 mandates impacting students and campus visitors,” Nass said.
The UW System is not requiring vaccinations for students and staff members, but the school is encouraging people to get the shot.
Vaccinated students have an opportunity to win more than $700,000 in scholarship money, and students additionally are being promised a near-normal campus experience in the fall. Unvaccinated students will continue to be required to wear masks and be tested every week.
UW spokesman Mark Pitsch told the State Journal the university is getting ready to welcome students back to class.
“Today’s action feels like a political statement; our focus is to ensure we are doing what needs to be done now to safely open for in-person teaching this fall,” Pitsch said.
Democratic lawmakers in Madison went further. They accuse Nass of not only playing politics with the pandemic, but of trying to hurt students.
“Legislative Republicans sat idly by for nearly a year, refusing to lift a finger to help stop the spread of COVID or address the economic devastation it caused. Now, they’re doing something even worse – abusing their positions to ensure that the virus spreads faster, by discouraging vaccination and masking and taking legally dubious steps to stop reasonable mitigation practices,” Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, said. “Nass apparently believes that he gets to act as some sort of ‘super Governor,’ exercising a preemptive veto over anything a public entity might do, including UW Systems. His power grabs continue to undermine our democracy and put our security at risk.”
Nass said the new rule is necessary to counter the drastic steps other colleges and universities are taking to deal with the coronavirus.
“Government issued Covid-19 mandates and lockdowns have failed miserably in dealing with this virus,” he said. “The path forward in addressing COVID-19 is not through excessive government mandates, but in the restoration of Americans being able to make voluntary informed decisions based on their individual health circumstances.”
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