Nearly all University of Tennessee student employees are required to get COVID-19 vaccines – Knoxville News Sentinel

Nearly all student employees at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville are required to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Chancellor Donde Plowmanannounced.

Students must be fully vaccinated by Jan. 18 for the university to comply with federal law. That means students must receive theirsecond dose of Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or a single dose of Johnson & Johnson, byJan.4 to allow time for the vaccine to take effect.

UT employs 7,312 students,which is about 23% of the student population.

The announcement came in an email to all faculty and staff at UT confirming that the university will be mandating vaccines to comply with federal law.

The university determined thatemployees atathletics facilities; residence halls and Greek houses; recreational sports facilities; and a small number of other nonacademic buildings will not be subject to the vaccine mandate. Those facilities don't work on federal contracts.

Biden's mandate: 17 million health care workers must be vaccinated by Jan. 4 under Biden's COVID-19 mandate

The UT Health Science Center in Memphis sent out a similar email last week for its staff and student employees, as well as some students who participate in federally funded clinics.

Guidelines put out by the Biden administration in September requires universities that are federal contractors to ensure all their employees are vaccinated and have proof of vaccination on file.

Both UT Knoxville and UT Health Science Centerreceivesubstantial federal funding from the government. The UT Health Science Center also receives funding for Medicare and Medicaid programs, so it's also subject to a separate vaccine mandate.

At the UT Health Science Center, students in both the College of Dentistry and the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology will need to be vaccinated.These academic programs have students who work at in-househealth care clinics that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

While faculty and staff in the UT System have known about the federal vaccine mandate for a while, it was unclear if it applies to students and student employees.

In November, Gov. Bill Lee signed a COVID-19 legislative package into law. It's now illegal for private businesses, governmental entities, schools or employers to require vaccines, masks or proof of vaccination.

However, had the UT System complied with state law, it would have violated federal law andlost millions in federal funding.

The university system applied for and received an exemption from the state law, which it must renew every year.

State law exemption: Major Tennessee universities can enact vaccine mandates in order to keep federal funding

The shifting laws caused some confusion earlier this fall.

When UT System President Randy Boyd lifted a mask mandate for the system, UT Knoxville and UT Health Science Center reinstated their mask requirements to comply with the federal contractor guidelines.

Masks:Over the course of 24 hours, University of Tennessee flip-flops on campus mask requirement

The guidelines requirefederal contractors to mandate masks when county community spread is considered high or substantial to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention.Both Knox and Shelby counties have high and substantial COVID-19 transmission.

Students and employees can request religious and medical exemptions from the vaccine mandate on the UT System website.

Go here to see the original:

Nearly all University of Tennessee student employees are required to get COVID-19 vaccines - Knoxville News Sentinel