As of April 10, Stanford University is no longer requiring people to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter its campus unless they work in a health care facility.
The vaccine was a requirement to step onto campus for the past two years.
All Medicare- or Medicaid-certified facilities, including the Vaden Health Center, Stanford University Occupational Health Center, and Stanford hospitals and clinics, still require the vaccine.
Stanford is also starting to phase out onsite testing. The testing ended March 24 for faculty but is still available until June 18 for students. After that, they will offer rapid tests.
The university is continuing its wastewater analysis—that is, analyzing sewage samples to detect the virus. According to its website, general trends of these samples over time have been consistent with trends in clinical cases.
In addition, it has revised its recommendations for what to do if you test positive. Positive cases are still required to be reported, but now students or faculty can return after the sixth day if they’re fever-free and symptoms are improving and if they tested negative for five days or if they wear a high-quality mask for 10 days after experiencing their first symptoms.
The school also ended the COVID-19 meal delivery protocols in March due to the reduction in cases. Students who test positive for COVID-19 no longer receive UberEats meal credits.
The students are now instructed to wear a K95 mask, pick up meals from dining halls, and eat either in their rooms or outside, away from others. Before March 17, students received reimbursements for meal deliveries for the entire recommended 10-day isolation period. The university is still providing free K95 masks.
Stanford also has a website called “Potential Exposure Building List,” where you can see possible exposures.
Since October, masks are no longer mandatory in classrooms. However, individual instructors can make them required in classes if they choose.
For the most part, the students and faculty that The Epoch Times spoke with are okay with the vaccine requirement being eased.
“I’m pretty indifferent to it, to be honest,” said Samuel Montagut, 21, an aerospace engineering major and an employee at Stanford’s Arrillaga Outdoor Education and Recreation. “I supported the requirement. I wasn’t really against it.”
He thinks the requirement was needed during the height of the pandemic, though he said it “went against American ideals” and bodily autonomy.
“But it was an emergency situation, and so now that the situation is not an emergency anymore, I guess we can go back to the same ideals,” he said.
Montagut is from Columbia, Ohio but currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
“It’s just like during wartime emergencies, and some rights had to be taken away, but as long as they come back when the emergency’s over, I think it’s pretty standard,” he said.
Another student, Rinnara Sangpisit, said she had mixed feelings about it.
“I think this is a hard issue,” said Sangpisit, 21, an economics student from Taiwan. “Personally, I prefer for people to have vaccines.”
She doesn’t feel strongly about masks now, but she thinks vaccines are somewhat important.
“But I also respect the decision made,” said Sangpisit. “I prefer people to have vaccination, although I feel like most people already have it.”
A staff member also agreed with Stanford’s decision to end the requirement.
“I feel basically okay about it. I think this university has been following federal guidance and prioritizing the safety of everyone in the community during the whole pandemic,” said Ryan Johnson, manager of the Civil Environmental Engineering Department. “I imagine they’re making the right decision.”
