ATLANTA (AP) – Some Georgia public universities are mandating vaccines for federal contract employees, even as Georgia’s state government sued President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday to block the requirement.
University System of Georgia regents previously ignored demands from some faculty to require COVID-19 vaccinations or masks to slow the transmission of the coronavirus. Instead, the system mandated that its 26 schools couldn’t require any of those things, sparking widespread faculty protests. A handful of faculty and employees were fired or resigned because they refused to follow the rules.
It’s unclear how many employees and student workers the federal rules will cover in Georgia.
But it could be a sizeable share of workers on campuses that get the most federal money. A Georgia Tech professor wrote Friday on Twitter that officials during a town hall estimated that about 77% of the school’s more than 14,000 employees are covered. Georgia Tech hasn’t responded to questions about the issue that The Associated Press first posed by email and phone on Wednesday.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Sept. 9 requiring employees working in connection with federal contracts – including student workers – to be vaccinated, wear masks and follow social distancing rules.