June 23, 2021
CAREERS Special Edition
Page 9
Portland Community College’s Cascade campus in north Portland, like the entire PCC educational system, won’t require students and staff to be vaccinat-
ed for COVID this fall.
PCC Won’t Require
Vaccinations
College doesn’t
want new barrier
to enrollment
Portland Community Col-
lege announced Monday that it
will not require students or em-
ployees to be vaccinated for the
coronavirus as a condition of
employment or enrollment this
fall term, a reversal of what’s
happening at Oregon’s four-
year public colleges.
This decision was recom-
mended unanimously by PCC’s
COVID-19 Opening Leader-
ship Team and approved by the
College President Mark Mitsui.
Officials said because vac-
cination access and hesitancy
looks different across racial
lines, vaccination requirements
create a barrier to educational
access that will disproportion-
ately impact Black, Indigenous
and People of Color (BIPOC).
This would not reflect PCC’s
institutional values of equity,
inclusion and belonging.
In addition, based on sur-
veys, vaccination rates for PCC
employee and student commu-
nities far exceed 70%, the vac-
cination target rate set by Gov.
Kate Brown.
Acknowledging the vaccina-
tion rate will never be 100%,
PCC pointed to Oregon law
that allows individuals to re-
quest exemption from vaccina-
tion requirements for personal,
religious, or medical reasons.
As such, some members of the
college’s community would not
be vaccinated, even if it were re-
quired, officials said.
“While many public univer-
sities are requiring vaccina-
tion, no community colleges
in Oregon are requiring vacci-
nation of all students, and few
community colleges across the
country are making vaccination
a requirement for enrollment.
This trend is aligned with the
open access mission of com-
munity colleges, a value that is
core to PCC,” a statement from
the college said.
Officials said as the state
moves closer to meeting the
Governor’s vaccination goal
of 70% of eligible Oregonians
receiving their first dose of the
COVID-19 vaccine, it’s likely
many of PCC’s pandemic ad-
ministrative rules and health and
safety guidelines could change.
For the latest on PCC’s health
and safety protocols, as well as
reopening plans, visit pcc.edu/
coronavirus/.