From NPR Ed
By Sneha Dey
Colleges across the U.S. are counting on high COVID-19 vaccination rates to keep their campuses safe this fall. But what will it take to get everyone vaccinated?
Some schools have adopted vaccine mandates, a few are charging students a fee for being unvaccinated, and many are hosting vaccine clinics on move-in days. If all that wasn’t enough, countless colleges are also offering flashy rewards to encourage students and faculty to get their shots.
At Ohio University, for example, prizes include:
a one-hour fall photoshoot
dinner with the men’s basketball coach
a VIP ride in the school’s homecoming parade
a drink named after the winner at an on-campus coffee shop
At the College of Charleston, in South Carolina, the school’s president has agreed to sit in a dunk tank when 90% of students are vaccinated.
Missouri State University is offering about $150,000 in prizes to vaccinated students. Those who get the shot (or shots) have a chance to win free housing, free tuition and free parking, among other things. David Hall, director of university safety, says the awards are a financial dream for many students — and, in some ways, for the university too.
“It reduces the need for testing and reduces the need for our COVID housing,” Hall explains. “This is saving the university money, in addition to the benefits that we’re getting to the students.”
But vaccine incentives only go so far, says Batool Ibrahim, a rising senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Monthly massages, football tickets and free ice cream are among the prizes Ibrahim’s school is handing out to students and faculty who register their vaccination status this summer.
Ibrahim says those incentives can certainly start conversations about getting the vaccine, but she would like to see her school implement stricter health and safety protocols for unvaccinated students. The university isn’t currently requiring vaccines or universal masking.
“While we’re pushing students to get vaccinated on campus, we’re battling with students that are coming from states where a mask mandate is banned … or they’re coming from states where the vaccine is more than questioned, it’s a conspiracy,” Ibrahim says.
Photo: Inside Higher Ed