To Retain Federal Funding, University of Alabama and Auburn University Say Employees Must Get Vaccinated

The University of Alabama (UA) and Auburn University (AU) announced connected Friday that to support national funding, the colleges indispensable comply with President Joe Biden’s Sept. 9 enforcement bid connected vaccine mandates for each employees.

Employees indispensable beryllium vaccinated by Dec. 8 oregon beryllium discharged.

“Failure to comply volition spot The University of Alabama successful jeopardy of losing hundreds of millions of dollars that we person done national contracts and awards, arsenic good arsenic thousands of jobs funded, successful part, by those dollars,” UA said successful a property merchandise to faculty, staff, and pupil employees.

As portion of his “Path Out of the Pandemic: COVID-19 Action Plan,” Biden enacted Executive Order 14042 that directed the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force to “issue guidance” mandating vaccines for national contractors and subcontractors, which includes nationalist universities.

“As a national contractor, The University of Alabama, similar astir higher acquisition institutions, indispensable comply with the enforcement bid and accompanying guidance,” UA said, with nary “flexibility successful its exertion oregon enforcement.”

UA said aesculapian and spiritual exemptions volition beryllium considered, and that it volition “continue to intimately analyse and show these national mandates.”

“We admit that this is an important taxable that volition make galore beardown feelings,” UA said.

As a nationalist probe instauration that receives national funding, AU is besides classified arsenic a national contractor that indispensable comply oregon suffer funding.

“Currently, Auburn maintains astir $200 cardinal successful national contracts that are expected to beryllium impacted by this order, including contracts with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Defense (DoD), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), among others,” AU said successful a property release. “Federal contracts are besides a large gross root for communities crossed Alabama—this is one-way taxation dollars paid to the national authorities travel backmost to the authorities to payment each Alabamians.”

In the fiscal twelvemonth 2020, Alabama contractors were awarded $12 cardinal for 98,147 national contracts and subcontracts, AU said.

“Auburn is compelled to comply with the enforcement bid and the guidance to the grade that those person been incorporated into our national contracts,” AU said. “Those contracts see the request that covered employees beryllium vaccinated for COVID-19.”