MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University vice president of strategic initiatives, Rob Alsop came to WAJR’s Talk of the Town to provide updates on coronavirus vaccinations for staff and students as well as issues being debated by state lawmakers.
As of March 18, all staff and faculty over the age of 50 that want the vaccine have received it. Faculty and staff 40-years-old and up will be vaccinated next followed by all others in the coming weeks.
“We would have loved to have had them sooner like everybody else,” Alsop said,” But, we’re very grateful that higher education was prioritized to take care of our faculty and staff.”
At this time the vaccine is only offered to students in clinical programs in the Health Sciences department. But, preparations are being made to vaccinate all other students as more supply becomes available and guidelines allow.
“We’ll do all we can when supply becomes available to make it available for our students,” Alsop said,” We’ll have to work through the logistics when that comes through, we’re working on a number of scenarios.”
As of March 16, about 250 students were either in quarantine or isolation and the cumulative positivity rate is 1.2 percent down from 3.13 percent February 28.
“The light at the end of the tunnel is right there, we just need to mind our p’s and q’s for a little while longer,” Alsop said,” The we can get back to some sense of normalcy.”
During this legislative session there have been multiple attempts to pass measures that would limit the authority of the WVU Board of Governors to establish policy regarding firearms on campus. According to Alsop, the university is committed to keeping staff and students safe and the best way to do that is through local control- not new laws from Charleston.
“We have a great university police department who we think does a good job in keeping our campus safe,” Alsop said,” We feel allowing us to maintain control of our campus is the most appropriate.”
WVU is part of the economic engine in the state by contributing thousands of qualified graduates each year. Officials are excited that state leaders are looking at ways to expand the economy and bring more people to the state. But, the investment made by the state to WVU annually could be on the chopping block as a way to fill budget holes.
We’ll leave it to the experts on the specifics of how best to do that from a tax structure perspective going forward,” Alsop said,” Our big focus has been that there does need to be that continued investment.”
House 2027 that would phase out the personal income tax was sent to the House Finance Committee March 9.