Wright State Student Success Center | Photo by Diana Jaber | The Wright State Guardian
Wright State University (WSU) Faculty Senate passed a resolution urging university administration to implement stricter COVID-19 policies.
Covid-19 policies
Convening on Sept. 20, the Faculty Senate discussed faculty concerns regarding COVID and academics.
The Senate passed the ‘Resolution on COVID Policies at Wright State University’ outlining what actions the faculty want to see the university take in regards to COVID.
Outlined in the resolution, the desire to implement incentives to become vaccinated, require students, staff and faculty to provide vaccination records or undergo weekly testing and require the COVID vaccine no later than spring 2022 among other safety measures.
President Sue Edwards announced new COVID policies meeting some of these provisions at the Sept. 17 Board of Trustees meeting.
Edwards announced a COVID vaccine incentive program for those who upload their records, a partnership with Premier Health to bring a centralized COVID testing and vaccination site to the Dayton campus, as well as adding a Covid vaccine requirement for residential students in spring 2022.
Faculty Senate members such as Senator Labib Rouhana are not satisfied with these policies and called on Edwards to implement a Covid vaccine mandate this semester.
According to Edwards, due to work with multiple faculty and staff unions and navigating contractual language, the university can not mandate the Covid vaccine.
“We are unable to change the conditions of enrollment mid-way through [the] semester,” Edwards said.
Academic policies
The Senate passed multiple policies regarding curriculum, international students and academics. A revision to policy 5120, regarding graduate assistantships, was sent back to the Graduate Academic Policy Committee (GAPC).
The revised policy outlines plans for WSU to publish a graduate tuition rate each fiscal year. This rate determines the cost of all graduate assistance credit hours covered by tuition remission regardless of residency status. Tuition remission pays the cost of tuition for those enrolled in the program.
Not clarified by the policy or GAPC chair David Ladle is the “residency status” clause, the clause determining what tuition students pay based on their U.S. and Ohio residency status. Also not clear is whether it applies to international students or not, causing the Senate to reject the revisions and send it back to committee.
The Faculty Senate will continue to revise and edit academic policies as the fall semester continues.
