Aug 14, 2021 - Health

Universities charge unvaccinated students "COVID fee"

Erin Doherty

Nurse Carlene Fleming administers a dose of COVID-19 vaccine to a patient at a mobile vaccination event at the downtown Orlando campus of the University of Central Florida and Valencia College. — Nurse Carlene Fleming administers COVID-19 vaccine to a patient at a mobile vaccination event at the downtown Orlando campus of the University of Central Florida and Valencia College. Photo: Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Unvaccinated students at West Virginia Wesleyan College will be required to pay a "COVID fee" this fall and students who are unvaccinated at Birmingham–Southern College in Alabama will be required to pay for weekly testing.

Driving the news: West Virginia Wesleyan College will require all unvaccinated students to pay a nonrefundable $750 fee. There, students are not required to get the vaccine but are encouraged to do so before the fall semester, per NBC.

Unvaccinated students must also wear masks and social distance on campus and undergo weekly testing.
The fees will "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," James Moore, the school's dean, told NBC affiliate WBOY of Clarksburg, West Virginia.

At Birmingham–Southern College, unvaccinated students must pay $500 at the start of the fall semester to pay for weekly testing and quarantining.

Students who are vaccinated will be issued an immediate refund, per NBC.
"We're not trying to charge everyone $500, we're trying to keep everybody safe," the college president, Daniel Coleman, told NBC affiliate WVTM of Birmingham. "If it encourages people to be vaccinated then that's good, I think, for our campus and the safety of our campus."

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Universities charge unvaccinated students "COVID fee"

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