This SC college required employees, athletes to get vaccinated. Here’s how it’s going

At least one South Carolina college has required all employees and athletes to get vaccinated.

The results, while early, are promising.

Allen University, a historically Black college in Columbia, S.C., has 100% of faculty, staff, administration and athletes vaccinated, university President Ernest McNealey told The State in an interview. Masks are also required indoors, he said.

The university has seen fewer than five cases since school started on Aug. 16. Allen University had 817 students in fall 2019, according to data from the S.C. Commission on Higher Education.

While Allen University students aren’t required to be vaccinated, more than 80% of the student body is vaccinated, McNealey said. At the University of South Carolina, just a couple miles down the road, 62% of students are vaccinated, 74% of faculty are vaccinated and 63% of staff are vaccinated, according to USC’s website.

Since Allen University is private, it is unaffected by the one-year state law that prevents public colleges from mandating vaccines. McNealey had planned to require vaccines since January, long before the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine received full FDA approval in August.

Requiring coronavirus vaccines has been controversial in some instances because not all types of vaccines have received full FDA approval. Others believe a vaccine mandate infringes on their right to make their own medical decisions. However, the decision to require vaccines at Allen University wasn’t very controversial, McNealey said.

“The vast majority of faculty and staff were aware of it, participated in discussion regarding it and there was no real controversy at all about it,” McNealey said regarding the vaccine mandate. “And obviously you are always going to have one or two students who will be reticent, but all of those who are participating in those activities, ultimately decided that they would prefer to be vaccinated.”

Part of the reason McNealey said Allen University’s COVID-19 policy has been successful is because the policy was formed by talking with campus stakeholders rather than mandating decisions top-down.

“We bring all segments of the campus into the discussion before we finalize any course of action and I think as a result of that we have a fairly high level of compliance,” McNealey said.

COVID-19 cases in South Carolina continue to remain high. On Sept. 1, the most recent date available, S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reported 6,032 new cases.