St. Kate’s changes its COVID vaccine requirement

Mar 17

Mar 17 St. Kate’s changes its COVID vaccine requirement

A positive COVID Test. Credit: Lydia Moylan

By Skylar Mattson

On Feb. 26, St. Catherine University’s Health Response Task Force announced that beginning March 1, the university no longer requires faculty, staff or students to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

This policy change may appear straightforward on the surface, but it comes with some stipulations. The main caveat is that students pursuing degrees in any health profession or area of study that includes a fieldwork placement will still be required to be vaccinated for, or show approved exemption from, the COVID vaccination.

Lydia Moylan ‘26 (Psychology) recently finished a five-day quarantine period after testing positive for COVID. Upon testing positive, Moylan called the phone number that St. Kate’s students who tested positive for the virus were encouraged to contact at the beginning of the school year. However, Moylan shared that there was no answer, and she never received a call back.

She added, “I think there should be clearer communication that [students] no longer need to call that number and also have support in place for students who have roommates and don’t have the option to isolate.” Moylan was grateful that she has her own room in a suite on campus, so she was able to isolate in her room and did not have to worry about getting anyone else sick.

As far as the change in the vaccine requirement, Moylan thought it was “not necessarily something that needed to happen. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to still ask that people are vaccinated. To me, it’s doing the same as other vaccines we’re required to get. We know the benefits of the vaccine by now, and the reason we’re in a position to talk about lifting the requirement is because people got vaccinated in the first place.”

Bella Lee ‘27 (Studio Art) said her feelings about the vaccine requirement change were not strong. She stated, “I get why some people might feel better about it, while others might feel worried.”

She added that she was a bit more on the worried side because, “COVID-19 can spread fast, and without a rule about vaccines, there’s a bigger chance of more people getting sick.”

Lee was nervous about how this change could affect college life since another lockdown could make things difficult for students. Lee concluded, “I just hope St. Kate’s can act quickly if there’s another outbreak.”

The Health Response Task Force behind this decision included Lauren Peterson, the director of St. Catherine University’s Health and Wellness Clinic; JoNes VanHecke, vice president of Student Affairs and dean of students; and Sarah Gasparini, interim director of Human Resources.

During an interview, all three individuals discussed their specific roles in changing this requirement.

VanHecke explained her role in the decision as trying “to think about the impact that such a new policy or change in policy would have on our student population and to think through what the repercussions might be for the student body and then to try to also think at an institutional level about things like best practice and liability and enforcement.”

Peterson said her role was to offer up her perspective as someone who worked in the office that manages and coordinates the immunization requirements for students.

Gasparini shared that for their part, “The role of human resources on a team like this is to think about as we make policies or new rules, the impact to our employees, what concerns might they have around safety, well-being and inclusion.”

It has been four years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Why is now a good time for St. Kate’s to eliminate the COVID vaccine requirement?

VanHecke pointed to the recent change in CDC guidance since the CDC and the state of Minnesota are two places that the institution follows closely when making decisions for the university.

“The CDC recently offered some changes to what their best practices are for people with regard to Covid and specifically around, you know, like, ‘Should you isolate?’” she said. “And so, I think this makes a good opportunity then for us to kind of think about what our expectations are for our community.”

As someone who meets with other higher education clinical directors, Peterson said that “we don’t necessarily need to do what everyone else is doing, but most other college campuses have not had this vaccine requirement in at least the last year, so we’re the last ones, in at least this greater vicinity, to remove it. I would say for us, we have such a high health care population of students that it just made more sense to keep the vaccine requirement up until now.”

As previously mentioned, students entering health care professions or programs with a fieldwork component will still be required to show proof of or approved exemption from the COVID vaccine.

When asked about the reasoning for this decision, Gasparini explained, “depending upon the kind of clinical program that you’re in, students may need to be in multiple clinical sites, even within a year. When we think about that, [not being vaccinated] really does slow down their course work if that’s not managed in advance.”

Even though being vaccinated against COVID is no longer required, staying up-to-date with the COVID vaccines is still recommended.

Peterson said that a new variation of the vaccine will be released annually in the fall, similar to the flu vaccine. The Health and Wellness Clinic does not offer this vaccine, but you can get it at pretty much any pharmacy including CVS or Walgreens.

Of course, masking is also no longer a requirement, but people can still mask for any reason. When asked about precautions that the St. Kate’s community could take against COVID, VanHecke encouraged community members “to be really conscientious about being thoughtful and supportive of people who are choosing to mask. There’s so many good reasons why people would choose to mask, and I would want our community to be really supportive of anyone who’s choosing to mask at any time.”

Gasparini added, “We’ve got employees or family members of employees who really need to listen to the medical advice of their care providers and understand for themselves when it’s gonna be best or when it’s important for them to mask, and we want to make sure we’re honoring that.”

Peterson pointed out, “Nothing is stagnant when it comes to health and viruses and the ever-changing knowledge that we have as time goes on,” so this requirement could always change again. Peterson does not foresee the vaccine requirement changing in the future, but COVID is still very much a part of our world. Therefore, all of the more minor COVID precautions that we have been taking do not go away. The Health Response Task Force reminds us to stay home when sick, wash our hands and test for COVID when presenting with symptoms.