SARANAC LAKE — To attend classes on campus at North Country Community College this semester, students will have to be vaccinated.

Classes start on Monday, but students will have until Sept. 27 to get their shots, a spokesman for the college confirmed Wednesday. College employees will not be required to get vaccinated. Everyone, regardless of vaccination status, will have to be masked when indoors.

College administrators had hoped there would be fewer mask protocols to follow in the fall semester, as the pandemic appeared to be winding down over the summer, NCCC Communications Director Chris Knight said. The recent rise in case numbers, in part because of the spread of the highly contagious delta variant, made college administrators change their plans. The college’s requirements around vaccination also changed when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the Pfizer vaccine full approval on Monday. Before that, the vaccine had only received emergency use authorization.

Knight said NCCC administrators knew this FDA approval was coming, so they’ve been ready for it and were already telling incoming students that they’d likely need the vaccine to be on campus.

All colleges in the State University of New York system, which NCCC is part of, are required to mandate vaccines for people to be on campus and use its facilities. Unvaccinated people can still take NCCC classes if their program offers courses fully online. The college is planning a combination of in-person, online and hybrid learning.

It’s been tough making these last-minute changes again, Knight said, but after the past year-and-a-half of constant changes, they’ve “learned we have to stay on our toes.”

It’s possible the vaccine mandate might change people’s plans to attend NCCC, Knight said.

“We’re hopeful that it doesn’t affect anyone’s plans, that they had already planned on it,” he said. “But if not, then there is a chance that we do have some students whose plans change.”

The college held a question and answer session with students last night and there is another one tonight at 7 p.m. The Zoom link is https://bit.ly/3zdnTtn, the meeting ID is 889-6574-1297 and the passcode is 714365.

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Vaccine

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Though classes start on Monday, there will be a “grace period” for students to get vaccinated. They have until Sept. 27.

“It’s possible that in the first couple weeks we will have students that aren’t fully vaccinated on campus,” Knight said. “That’s why we’ve adjusted our masking guidelines.”

The college will require students who are not vaccinated yet to get tested for COVID-19 weekly until Sept. 27. He said this will be through pooled saliva testing and will be offered at no cost to students.

After that, all students on campus will be required to be vaccinated, but the college will still encourage weekly testing. Anyone who got a medical or religious exemption from vaccine will have to get weekly testing as well.

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Masks

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The college initially planned to not require that vaccinated people wear masks. Now, masks are required to be worn regardless of vaccination whenever indoors — classrooms, common areas and hallways — except when eating and drinking in the cafeteria.

This mask requirement will stick around after Sept. 27 and last through the fall semester.

Sarah Shoemaker, an associate professor of health sciences at NCCC, said she pushed for the universal indoor mask mandate because she feels it is safer and more equitable for everyone if everyone dons a mask.

“Requiring only unvaccinated people to wear masks would essentially out their vaccine status,” Shoemaker said. “We did not want to promote that kind of ‘othering’ culture. We are one college.”

Recent research has shown that vaccinated people infected with the delta variant might be just as contagious as those who are unvaccinated, prompting the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue new guidance suggesting everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors in places where there is a “substantial” or “high” level of community spread. Both Franklin and Essex counties are currently in that “high” level category.

The vaccines do still provide extra protection against COVID-19.

“There’s still a benefit for vaccinated people to wear masks and be around vaccinated people,” Shoemaker said. “The vaccine is not iron-clad. It does offer a very high standard of protection from hospitalization and death.”

She added that she didn’t want to mandate masks again, but it is the safest way to conduct school now.

“None of us are looking forward to having to teach in a mask, having to looking at students wearing masks,” Shoemaker said. “But safety was more important.”

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Student life

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Students are living on campus now — student athletes moved in early August — and more are moving in this week.

Interim Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Kim Irland wrote in a message that 90% “of student engagement will continue to be offered virtually.”

“We saw a lot of success with engaging our three campus locations and fully online students,” she said. “Virtual events are a trend that is sticking around and will continue to be a part of our offerings for years to come.”

For athletics, the college is following guidelines from the National Junior College Athletic Association.

Student athletes, coaches and spectators at outdoor do not have to wear masks in practice or competition

Indoors, athletes will not have to wear masks practice or competition, but will have to be work when on the bench or sidelines. Coaches and spectators will also have to mask up indoors.

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“An abundance of caution”

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Shoemaker said she felt the college’s plan exercises “an abundance of caution” and that with its policies, she feels safe enough to return to the classroom after teaching remotely during the pandemic.

But she felt that requiring students to get vaccinated, and not employees, was an “inequitable policy” and a “double-standard.”

Shoemaker acknowledged that it may be easier for the college to mandate things of its students, who sign an agreement, than with employees, who sign contracts. She believes it would take more legal steps to mandate vaccines for employees.

“It’s easier, legally to require things of students,” Shoemaker said. “Ethically, personally, philosophically? … I think that what is required of our students should be required by our staff. I think that that’s a sentiment that is shared by the majority of faculty.”

Shoemaker said she’s glad the SUNY system waited for the FDA’s approval to mandate the vaccine.

“I think that that was important for people’s comfort,” she said. “I’m a vaccine advocate, but I’m also, probably more so, an advocate for bodily autonomy.”

Shoemaker said she can sympathize with those who are struggling with this mandate, but said they are important for safety on campus.

Shoemaker has been talking with some of these students making that difficult choice. She said they are hesitant to get the vaccine, not opposed to it. When they talk with her, an professional in the field, she tries to alleviate their fears. Being nervous about a vaccine is normal, she said.

“We have an abundant access to information, and a lot of that is bad information,” Shoemaker said.

All students in Allied Health programs — Massage Therapy, Practical Nursing, Associates Degree in Nursing and Radiologic Technology — are required to be vaccinated to be placed in a clinical setting, as per state guidelines for health care workers.

Students can apply for a medical or religious exemption from the vaccine by Sept. 22.