24 University of Kentucky employees placed on leave for not following COVID-19 policy
The University of Kentucky has placed 24 employees on administrative leave without pay for not complying with COVID-19 testing policies, university officials said this week.
Additionally, 146 students have not been compliant with the university’s testing and vaccination requirements since the beginning of the semester, and have not been able to register for classes and have lost access to university events, campus buildings and meal plans, UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said.
Students and employees who are not vaccinated are required to be tested for COVID-19 weekly at UK. Those who do not comply face disciplinary actions from the university. More than 26,500 students and more than 20,710 employees are required to either be tested weekly or submit proof of vaccination to UK, Blanton said.
The employees placed on administrative leave have been out of compliance since the university announced the testing requirement earlier this semester, meaning “they have never been in compliance with our vaccine and testing protocols,” Blanton said.
Students and employees are not required to be vaccinated for COVID-19, but those who do not submit proof of vaccination are required to be tested weekly. UK HealthCare employees and new employees who were offered a job beginning in October are required to be vaccinated.
“We have had remarkable compliance, I would add, with now nearly 90 percent of our campus vaccinated and the large majority of the rest of our campus community testing per our protocols,” Blanton said.
In total, 440 students and 67 employees were out of compliance as of last week, according to data provided by UK. Those numbers vary from people who have missed one week of COVID-19 to those who have been out of compliance the entire fall semester.
No students have been suspended for being out of compliance, Blanton said. However, those who have been out of compliance since the beginning of the semester will receive an interim suspension on Jan. 9, the first day of the spring semester.
“They will get notice this week that they will be on suspension next semester if they do not get into compliance with our protocols,” Blanton said. “This is consistent with how we have handled some other suspensions, which start at the beginning of a semester in some cases.”
The majority of students who are out of compliance are “in large measure, not coming to campus,” Blanton said. Those students have at least one on-campus class, so they are included in the group of people required to be tested if they are not vaccinated, but other factors tracked by the university show that they have not been coming to campus, like their dining plan utilization.
Most UK students and employees are compliant with the vaccination and testing requirements. As of Nov. 8, the most recently available data, 89.6% of UK students and employees are fully vaccinated or in the process of becoming fully vaccinated. A person is considered fully vaccinated when they are 14 days past their second COVID-19 vaccination, and considered “in the process” of being fully vaccinated if they have received one dose of the vaccine, but not the second.
When broken down by category, 86.7% of students are vaccinated, 97.2% of faculty are vaccinated and 92.5% of staff are vaccinated. UK HealthCare is 92.6% vaccinated, according to the UK COVID-19 dashboard.
Testing requirements for employees went into place on Sept. 1. Students have been required to be tested weekly if they are not vaccinated since the start of the fall semester. UK HealthCare employees were required to be vaccinated as of Sept. 15.
The following numbers of employees are out of compliance with UK’s testing policy, as of last week:
- Out of compliance for one week: 16
- Out of compliance for two weeks: 9
- Out of compliance for three weeks: 8
- Out of compliance for four weeks: 5
- Out of compliance for five weeks: 5
- Out of compliance for six weeks: 24
The following numbers of students are out of compliance with UK’s testing policy, as of last week:
- Out of compliance for one week: 4
- Out of compliance for two weeks: 24
- Out of compliance for three weeks: 52
- Out of compliance for four weeks: 75
- Out of compliance for five weeks: 69
- Out of compliance for six weeks: 70
- Out of compliance for seven weeks: 146
At the end of September, the number of non-compliant students and employees were much higher: 2,100 students and 980 employees were out of compliance on Sept. 29. The numbers have changed since then as more people have been vaccinated, submitted proof of vaccination to the university or begun weekly testing, Blanton said.