CBC students must declare COVID vaccine status before heading back to winter classes

Columbia Basin College students must be vaccinated against COVID-19 or file an exemption if they plan to attend in-person classes next spring.

But college officials are taking time this winter to ask students about their vaccine status and share information.

Then, if they don’t have an exemption or been fully vaccinated by spring quarter, they won’t be able to sign up for classes, said Jay Frank, the college’s assistant vice president of communications and external relations.

“For us, it’s pretty clear for our community to get back to normal, vaccination is the best option we have,” said Frank.

It also brings the school in line with a majority of the other colleges across Washington state, he said.

Already, CBC employees fell under the Oct. 18 requirement for state employees to get vaccinated or submit an exemption.

While college officials want students to get vaccinated, they also don’t want to deter them from signing up for classes for winter quarter, which starts Jan. 3. So students won’t be asked to prove their vaccination status.

Currently, college officials are seeing that some students are pausing registration on the page where they need to fill out their vaccination status.

“We know that any step is a real barrier,” he said. “That is why we’re not requiring them to locate their card.”

For students who aren’t vaccinated yet or don’t have an exemption, school officials plan to reach out to them during the next quarter with information about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

Officials also expect to continue offering vaccination clinics.

They recently delivered their 500th shot on campus. The next vaccination clinic is Dec. 8.

The college has offered a vaccination clinic each month since June, and have partnered with both the Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the state Department of Health to hold the events.

While fewer people have been participating, their most recent clinic brought in 27 people to get their initial shot. Most of the sessions, which now offer the booster vaccines, have been open to the public and don’t require registration.

Returning to class

The college’s decision comes as the school restarted all in-person services, including counseling, advising and registration. All of them had been online for more than 18 months.

This won’t affect the online help that students have been getting during the pandemic, Frank said.

While most employees are back in person already, the majority of students will remain online when the winter quarter starts after the holidays.

The college has opened up spots for students to attend in person classes this fall. However, they must check in when they arrive on campus and get their temperature checked and address a couple questions about if they’re suffering any COVID-type symptoms.

Currently, about 20% of classes are being held in person, particularly courses like welding that require hands-on learning.

College officials are expecting that about 20% to 30% of the classes winter quarter also will be in classrooms. The remaining will be online.

“We feel that we’ve landed in a good mix,” Frank said. “If students want to pursue an in-person education, we’re certainly able to accommodate that.”

It’s still unclear how those numbers will change as the school heads into the spring quarter.