RICHMOND, Va. -- As a new school year gets underway soon, many universities in Virginia are having to trigger protocols put in place to deal with cases of unvaccinated students.
While the University of Virginia has seen overwhelmingly high compliance among students with their vaccine mandate, the vaccination status of a small percentage of students is still unknown -- which has led to the university disenrolling 242 students.
A university spokesperson says students can re-enroll if they come into compliance with the rule or file an approved exemption.
UVA Spokesman Brian Coy told The Virginian-Pilot that the students were disenrolled after "receiving multiple reminders via email, text, phone calls, calls to parents that they were out of compliance and had until yesterday to update their status."
CBS 6 reached out to other universities in the state including Virginia Tech, The University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University to see how they're navigating vaccination status among the study body.
There were no students who had been disenrolled at those universities but each detailed the processes they have in place to handle these cases.
"If your vaccination records are not complete, your enrollment is placed on hold," Virginia Tech's Associate Vice President for University Relations Mike Owczarski said. "Then begins a process to understand the circumstances of each student who has a hold. We reach out and work with every student who has a hold on their account. Classes start Monday. Students have until Friday, August 27 to resolve any issues they may have. So, in other words, as of right now, no one has been disenrolled."
At the University of Richmond, unvaccinated students must participate in arrival and weekly prevalence testing.
"On Monday, August 16, a registration hold was placed on the accounts of those students who did not submit a vaccination record or request an exemption. Registration holds will be lifted when a student submits their vaccination record or submits a request for a medical or religious exemption," VCU spokesperson Mike Porter said in part.
