Nevada educators voice concern as college vaccine mandate lifts

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Following the Legislative Commission’s Tuesday decision allowing the Nevada college vaccine mandate to expire, university educators voiced frustration.

The vote was split between party lines with all six Republicans voting against a permanent mandate and all six Democrats in favor. A tie meant the measure failed.

“I foresee happening that we're going to have a lot of faculty that are going to be asking to teach their courses remotely,” said Amy Pason, a UNR professor and chair of the Faculty Senate Chairs. “I think that our faculty senate will be looking to see if it's a possibility to get some of our classes remote.”

Until Tuesday night, Nevada college students who weren’t vaccinated against the coronavirus had spring semester registration holds placed against them.

This comes after university faculty and staff spent countless hours confirming student vaccination status and sorting through medical and religious exemption waivers.

“A lot of time and effort to keep us safe just for the legislative commission to vote this down,” said Pason, who described the process as a full-time job.

Pason said many teachers are now concerned about holding in-person classes next semester knowing some students aren’t vaccinated.

“Even looking at our own campuses, if you go to a basketball game at UNLV or UNR, you have to show that you're vaccinated,” said Pason. “Those same safety precautions aren't going to be there for our classrooms.”

The Board of Regents’ NSHE COVID vaccine requirement is still in effect as well as the mask mandate for all indoor spaces on campuses.

RELATED | Nevada COVID-19 vaccine mandates expire as lawmakers split on approval

After the commission vote, Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Melody Rose sent all institutions a memo reading, in part:

“Following the direction of the Legislative Commission, any student registration hold based on not having a COVID-19 vaccine must be lifted immediately.”

UNLV leadership sent a message to the university community Wednesday afternoon informing them any student holds on spring registration would be removed by as early as the end of the day.

After Tuesday’s vote, Governor Sisolak’s office released a statement confirming they’d still seek to implement a vaccine requirement through the traditional legislative process. It’s a move that could take months.

As a result, some university faculty worry students could be caught in a chaotic and confusing situation.

“If the permanent regulation does go through, as through the regular process, then you may be able to sign up for in-person classes that you would not be able to attend,” said Kent Ervin, president of the Nevada Faculty Alliance.

Ervin said the emergency measure that just expired meant unvaccinated students couldn’t register for classes.

But he explained if the permanent regulation is approved, unvaccinated students could register for spring classes only to have their enrollment terminated in the middle of next semester.

“We are all less comfortable teaching in person when we now know that there will be unvaccinated students in class,” said Ervin.

Ervin said many educators had to enact two forms of instruction this past semester utilizing both in-person and remote learning. He called it the “worst of both worlds.”

He said university leadership, the regents, and Governor Sisolak needed to step up to enact a permanent regulation either through the traditional method or via another emergency measure.

“Morale on the campuses is as low as I've seen it in a long while. And it's because we feel like the leadership has failed us.”