Employee vaccination rates are high at Washington state’s public universities

There is high anticipation over whether Washington State University will allow its head football coach, the highest paid state employee, to bypass getting a coronavirus vaccine by qualifying for a religious exemption.

Among Coach Nick Rolovich’s 437 colleagues at WSU who have also sought a religious exemption, 22% have been successful as of Oct. 6, according to university records.

But they appear to be a small minority. At WSU and the state’s five other institutions of higher learning, the vaccination rate for employees as of midweek last week was high — ranging from 88% (at least partially vaccinated) on the low end at WSU to 98% on the high end at the University of Washington and The Evergreen State College.

Last week, Washington’s public universities rushed to reconcile the vaccination statuses of their workers, and got ready to cut ties with those who miss Monday’s deadline to comply with Gov. Jay Inslee’s vaccine mandate for government workers.

While there isn’t a statewide mandate for vaccination among public college students, all the schools — which issued their own mandates for students — reported at least half of those enrolled had verified their vaccination status. The deadlines for doing so vary, and the consequences for not doing so are less immediate; in several cases, such as at the UW, students who don’t verify by the college’s deadline will have a hold placed on their registration for winter term classes.

So far, at Western Washington University, 99% of students registered for in-person classes were vaccinated; at Central Washington University, 57% had verified their vaccination status; at UW and Eastern Washington University 80% of students; at Evergreen, around 93%. At Washington State University, overall vaccination numbers among students are unclear.