Wesleyan University said that those students who come down with COVID-19 and who are unable to quarantine off campus will be charged an additional $250.
Students at West Virginia's Wesleyan College will be charged a $750 non-refundable fee if they show up to campus for the fall semester unvaccinated for COVID-19, school officials announced this week.
The official start of classes for the private liberal arts college in Buckhannon, West Virginia, is August 23. According to school officials, those students who don’t show proof that they got vaccinated or have their first shot of vaccination on or before September 7 will have to pay the fee, the college said on its website.
Students who come down with COVID-19 will have a 48-hour window of "contained housing." Following that period, they will be responsible to make their own temporary off-campus housing arrangements or return home. They will need to have medical clearance in order to return to campus. For those students who are unable to make other arrangements and need to quarantine on campus, they will be charged $250, CBS News reported.
“The fee is going to be used to cover the expenses that will come with increased testing and other resources that the college will have to utilize and deploy to keep every student safe,” Dean James Moore said, the Associated Press reported.
Students, faculty, and staff who are unvaccinated are required to wear masks indoors, including in classrooms, dining halls, residence halls, wellness center, and at all indoor venues on campus, and maintain social distancing. They are also required to take a weekly COVID-19 test, the website said.
Students who are unvaccinated will also be limited in the use of facilities and other indoor venues for the protection of the health and safety of the campus community, the school said.
Wesleyan officials urged that students who are unvaccinated will be subject to student judicial action if they do not follow the school “Arrival on Campus” policies regarding wearing masks, COVID-19 testing, and. social distancing, according to its website.
Fully vaccinated students are able to go maskless indoors, if they choose to, and return to normal on-campus activities, the school said.
Approximately, 90% of the faculty and staff at Wesleyan college have been vaccinated and school officials said on their website they were “proud of the progress” their campus community has made.
