In order to plan for the upcoming Summer and Fall Semesters, Ohio University is rolling out a registry for students, faculty and staff who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The OHIO Voluntary Vaccine Registry will collect data using a survey to gain a better understanding of the vaccination status of the university community.
The survey asks participants to provide information regarding their vaccination experience, including the type of vaccine they received, the vaccine distributor they visited and the date of dose(s). It will also give participants the option to fill out demographic information and upload a report of their vaccination record, but these sections are not required.
The survey will require a name and email address, but this information will be kept strictly confidential, Gillian Ice, special assistant to the president for public health operations, said.
Information collected in the survey will help the university determine how to conduct operations for summer and fall.
“Knowing what proportion of our University community is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in addition to considering many other factors and guidance from state and local health officials, will help in making decisions about when and how to resume normal University operations,” Ice said in an email.
The survey currently has 739 responses as of Tuesday, but the university has not yet made any assessments on summer and fall programming based on this data.
“It is probably too soon to tell,” Ice said in an email. “This would depend on survey response rates and actual vaccination rates in campus communities.”
The survey will be open indefinitely on OU’s website. It will be further promoted through social media, university publications and official university communications, such as the weekly public health letters that Ice sends to students.
Some students are hopeful receiving a vaccine will help the university resume with more in-person classes and activities in the Fall Semester.
Emily Harasin, a freshman studying chemistry, believes receiving a vaccine will allow her to enjoy more in-person experiences.
“I’m definitely going to sign up for it … because obviously vaccinations are important. I know a lot of people who have already gotten it, and they say they feel so much safer,” Harasin said.
Harasin said even after receiving the vaccine, she will continue to wear face masks and social distance for her own safety.
Harasin said she hopes in-person learning will return in the Fall Semester because her classes with lab components can be more difficult to learn online. She also expects to join more clubs once they begin to meet in-person.
“I’ve been telling people that I’m just waiting for things to be in-person … I want to join some sort of sports team, maybe, but that’s obviously impossible to do if it’s not in-person,” Harasin said.
Harasin said she had already known about the survey through one of the weekly public health update emails from Ice. She had completed the vaccine interest survey and said she would be interested in taking the vaccine registry survey once she is fully vaccinated.
Colin King, a sophomore studying marketing, said he finds it crucial for everyone to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
“I don’t really understand why people aren’t just fully behind science,“ King said. “I don’t even know why people would question it.”
King was not aware of the survey but said he is interested in completing it. He thinks an in-person college experience in the Fall Semester will be an improvement compared to the current online environment.
“Even though (COVID-19) has been going on for a while, people are still kind of having trouble adjusting to the whole new lifestyle, and I think it’s moved much smoother when it’s just in-person,” King said.
