The University of New Mexico announced in a letter on Sept. 27 that dual-credit high school students attending the school would be exempted from the vaccine mandate for students.
Those high school students who are dual-enrolled in university courses and programs will not be subjected to disciplinary actions should they choose not to get vaccinated, according to the Daily Lobo, unlike full-time and part-time students attending UNM.
“The administration constantly reminds our branch campus colleagues to treat their high school students as they would any other group of college students,” Ernesto A. Longa, president of the United Academics of the University of New Mexico, wrote in a letter published in the Daily Lobo on Sept. 27. “Why can’t the administration follow its own advice and require high school students taking UNM classes be vaccinated just as UNM students are required to be vaccinated?”
UNM Provost James Holloway addressed branch chancellors in an email explaining that high-school students do not have NET IDs like fully-enrolled university students, making it difficult to report vaccination status, in addition to the difficulties surrounding coordination with charter high schools and an inability to bill fines to schools, according to the Daily Lobo. That, he said, is why the university decided not to require dual-credit high schoolers to be vaccinated.
Unlike UNM, New Mexico State University and Central New Mexico Community College are both requiring that dual-credit high schools become full vaccinated in order to attend classes on campus, or alternatively provide a negative COVID-19 test weekly, the Daily Lobo reported.