Unvaccinated college students face COVID-19 test fees — and sometimes stiff fines
CBSN
Like many employers around the U.S., colleges and universities are taking a carrot-and-stick approach to convincing unvaccinated students to roll up their sleeves. That ranges from some schools offering prizes such as scholarships and unlimited meal plans in return for getting inoculated, while other institutions take the hard line and impose fees of $2,000 or more to help cover the costs of coronavirus testing.
More than 500 colleges and universities across the country are requiring students to get vaccinated. Birmingham-Southern College is not among them, the Alabama school states on its website. Instead, all of BSC's nearly 1,300 students will be charged $500 for the fall term to offset the cost of weekly COVID-19 testing and quarantining, although fully vaccinated students will get the money back. Another Alabama institution, Auburn University, is taking a starkly different approach — an incentive program in the form of a contest for fully vaccinated students and student organizations. Individual prizes include an upgraded parking pass for the semester, an unlimited meal plan and a $1,000 scholarship. Other prizes include customized Yeti coolers and a catered meal, according to the school, where nearly 31,000 undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.