The California State University Chancellor Joseph Castro met with San Jose State’s community members Tuesday to discuss the repopulation of campus for Fall 2021 during a Zoom conference.
Castro said his first priority is to protect students, faculty and staff during the coronavirus pandemic and to work with CSU presidents to safely repopulate all 23 campuses.
“We're working to finalize our policy and I anticipate there'll be some more details forthcoming,” Castro said during the forum. “I can't tell you exactly how we're going to do that yet . . . the important thing here is that we want everybody on campus to be vaccinated and move us toward herd immunity on the campuses.”
He said he feels “cautiously optimistic” about current vaccination rates and a COVID-19 immunization policy is currently in development.
The CSU and SJSU first announced its intent to require students, faculty and staff to be fully vaccinated before returning to campus next fall in an April 22 news release.
This development reversed an April 8 CSU news release that initially stated it wouldn’t require the vaccine. Michael Uhlenkamp, senior director of CSU public affairs, stated in the release that the decision stemmed from legal liabilities.
Uhlenkamp said legal liabilities can arise because the vaccines aren’t fully Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved yet. However, Pfizer stated in its First Quarterly 2021 Earnings report Tuesday it’s seeking to get full FDA approval by the end of May.
The Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are currently authorized for emergency use and haven’t undergone the same review as a fully cleared product, according to the FDA Emergency Authorization Use fact sheet.
FDA emergency use authorizations are issued when there are no other adequate, approved and available alternatives.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA halted supplies of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on April 13 after six women ages 18-48 experienced a rare blood-clot complication a few weeks after they were immunized.
Castro said the CSU is developing a policy to verify COVID-19 immunization records for the upcoming semester. But, those who have medical or religious reasons for not getting the vaccine will be reviewed and receive exemptions.
“I think San Jose State, in so many ways, represents that exciting opportunity to transform not just the individuals lives, but whole communities and to really model what equity means in . . . such an important urban area like San Jose,” Castro said.
As for Castro’s other priorities, he aims to close the equity gap between underrepresented minority and majority students and hire more faculty from underrepresented backgrounds.
“That's something that I think as a system we have the opportunity to go to that next level in terms of our effectiveness and San Jose State's been even busy during this pandemic recruiting some really talented faculty,” Castro said.
While he hopes to hire more underrepresented faculty, he intends to adhere to Proposition 209, which prohibits state government institutions from considering race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the public employment sector, according to Ballotpedia.
“Proposition 209 is always followed by the CSU and I want you to know my comments were all about trying to broaden our pools of candidates and to select the very best people from all different backgrounds,” Castro said. “I believe through intensive recruitment, through creating a culture of support for women and people of color, that we can succeed in attracting and hiring more of them into our faculty.”
He said recruitment is essential so that campus faculties reflect the “rich diversity of our student body.”
