Due to a lack of compliance with the COVID-19 directives, 16 students have been suspended for the rest of the fall semester and additional students are still working their way through the disciplinary process. Suspended students do not receive a refund for tuition, room and board, or other fees.
Deputy spokesperson Dan Olsen said there are a number of meanings to “non-compliance.”
"It could be not responsive to the verification form, it could be that they indicated they do not plan to get a COVID vaccine and did not seek an exemption ... a non-participation in the early detection program if they have an exemption," Olsen said.
Olsen said in a statement that more than 90% of MSU students have self-reported they are fully vaccinated.
“COVID-19 vaccines are one of the most powerful and one of the few tools we have to prevent disease, severe illness and death,” Olsen said in his statement.
Two MSU employees, Mason County Extension educator D’Ann Rohrer and video producer Kraig Ehm, no longer work for the university, but Olsen did not confirm a reason.
According to a statement from the New Civil Liberties Alliance, Ehm and Rohrer joined a class-action lawsuit against MSU on Friday, led by administrative associate and fiscal officer Jeanna Norris. The two were added as plaintiffs to an amended complaint.
U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney denied Norris' motion for preliminary injunction on Oct. 8.
The lead attorney representing Norris is Jenin Younes from the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Younes said she believes both employees received notice of termination due to non-compliance with the COVID-19 directives.
“Essentially, they have naturally acquired immunity,” Younes said. “They don't want to get the vaccine for that reason. They believe it violates their statutory and constitutional rights.”
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