Equality and Fairness for Medical and Religious Exemptions at CWRU

The Issue

Over the past year, the unvaccinated students at CWRU have endured a lot of unnecessary stress and prejudice as a result of a multitude of policies. Most of the student population is unaware of the circumstances that are plaguing their fellow classmates and friends.  CWRU is a progressive institution, and all policies should be subject to change with the release of new information and statistics. However, policies have only become more detrimental for the unvaccinated students.  On July 24, 2021, all people with medical exemptions, because of disabilities, and religious exemptions were told that they were forced to be living off-campus.  Prior to this, they all had rooms and roommates already picked out.  They were hopeful and excited to be attending CWRU in the fall, but their college experience was ripped out of their hands at the very last minute.  This policy was enacted less than 3 weeks before everyone was supposed to move in.  The university was expecting them to find housing elsewhere in less than 3 weeks, and some people did.  Not even a few days later, on July 27, 2021, another email came out saying that everyone would be allowed to live on campus, but forced to be separated from everyone else. They were not allowed to have roommates, not even fellow unvaccinated students, and they are not allowed to have any visitors whatsoever.  This was all put into place during a time where the university feared that unvaccinated people would spread Covid-19 much easier than vaccinated people.  However, we now know that everyone can spread covid easily, and a majority of the people on campus with positive tests are vaccinated. Yet, no policies have been updated or revisited regarding the people with exemptions.  However, with a decline of cases, policies are being relaxed for those who are vaccinated.  There are no statistics that the university is able to provide that would support the unfair treatment of the exempted students. Schools like Brown, Carnegie Mellon, and WashU claim that separating the people with exemptions from their fellow classmates would be grounds for HIPAA violations and discrimination cases.  There is no valid reason to be keeping us separate from the other students at Case and there is no reason for anyone to continue to support these discriminatory policies.  The mental and physical affects of this isolation on the students who have valid medical reasons and religious reasons that prevent them from getting the vaccine is too severe for us to stay quiet about it.  We are all looking for change, or for concrete evidence to back up the decisions of the university.

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The Issue

Over the past year, the unvaccinated students at CWRU have endured a lot of unnecessary stress and prejudice as a result of a multitude of policies. Most of the student population is unaware of the circumstances that are plaguing their fellow classmates and friends.  CWRU is a progressive institution, and all policies should be subject to change with the release of new information and statistics. However, policies have only become more detrimental for the unvaccinated students.  On July 24, 2021, all people with medical exemptions, because of disabilities, and religious exemptions were told that they were forced to be living off-campus.  Prior to this, they all had rooms and roommates already picked out.  They were hopeful and excited to be attending CWRU in the fall, but their college experience was ripped out of their hands at the very last minute.  This policy was enacted less than 3 weeks before everyone was supposed to move in.  The university was expecting them to find housing elsewhere in less than 3 weeks, and some people did.  Not even a few days later, on July 27, 2021, another email came out saying that everyone would be allowed to live on campus, but forced to be separated from everyone else. They were not allowed to have roommates, not even fellow unvaccinated students, and they are not allowed to have any visitors whatsoever.  This was all put into place during a time where the university feared that unvaccinated people would spread Covid-19 much easier than vaccinated people.  However, we now know that everyone can spread covid easily, and a majority of the people on campus with positive tests are vaccinated. Yet, no policies have been updated or revisited regarding the people with exemptions.  However, with a decline of cases, policies are being relaxed for those who are vaccinated.  There are no statistics that the university is able to provide that would support the unfair treatment of the exempted students. Schools like Brown, Carnegie Mellon, and WashU claim that separating the people with exemptions from their fellow classmates would be grounds for HIPAA violations and discrimination cases.  There is no valid reason to be keeping us separate from the other students at Case and there is no reason for anyone to continue to support these discriminatory policies.  The mental and physical affects of this isolation on the students who have valid medical reasons and religious reasons that prevent them from getting the vaccine is too severe for us to stay quiet about it.  We are all looking for change, or for concrete evidence to back up the decisions of the university.

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A APetition Starter

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