Updated 7:20 PM Oregon’s public and private institutions of higher learning are diverging on whether to require COVID-19 vaccinations for students returning to campus this fall. Two private colleges have announced vaccination mandates in the past week but public universities are demurring. Last Thursday, the same day Lewis & Clark College announced that its students must be vaccinated against COVID-19, Willamette University in Salem issued the same mandate except its new policy also requires employees be vaccinated. Willamette University students and employees will have to record their vaccination information on online portals. Similarly to Lewis & Clark students, Willamette will allow exemptions for either medical or non-medical reasons and the university will evaluate each request on a case by case basis, their website states.
Lewis & Clark College is the first in the state to announce it will do so.
Lewis & Clark College announced Wednesday that students would need a vaccine to return to campus in the fall, unless they qualify for an exemption.
Students at Lewis & Clark College, a small, prestigious private school in Southwest Portland, will have to show proof that they have been vaccinated in order to return to campus next fall, making the school the first higher education institution in Oregon to make that official. Â
Lewis & Clark follows a growing number of universities nationwide that are mandating vaccination for the fall, but other Oregon colleges say they are still weighing the decision.Â
Insight: The definition of religious liberty is expanding
The Supreme Court is finding that the right to practice a faith without government interference means religious people don t have to recognize the rights of others.
By Steven K. GreenWillamette University
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The Supreme Court’s current term is winding down, but there are still several cases to be decided – and, as with most terms, a controversy over church-state matters looms.
Fulton vs. City of Philadelphia is among the cases still to be decided. It centers on a requirement that private agencies that receive city funding – in this case an adoption agency – do not discriminate against any community they serve, including members of the LGBTQ community. This nondiscrimination requirement applies to both religious and nonreligious organizations. But the adoption service at the heart of the case – Catholic Social Services – refused to comply, asserting that not being allowed to discriminate against gay couple
ONTARIO
Marti Deyo is still moving into her new position and office at the Malheur Extension Office, but on Friday was busy preparing for a planning session with local 4-H leaders.
Deyo, 39, took over the position of 4-H program coordinator/youth development, for the Oregon State University Extension Service in Maheur County on Feb. 15. Already, she is planning an assessment with 4-H leaders, members, 4-H alumni and other members of the community to discuss needs in the program and in the community to plan the direction of the program.
Born and raised in Orofino, Idaho, Deyo said she was involved in 4-H as a club member for nine years and was involved in just about every 4-H project there was at the time, except animals. One year she had 13 projects, she said.
AT THE MARCH 2019 AFL-CIO ORGANIZING SUMMIT From left, Ellen Ino, partner Jim Robison, national AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka, Local 483 business manager Farrell Richartz and Local 483 administrator Luz Reyes-Geislinger.
Ellen Ino, a tenacious union volunteer and political campaigner, retired recently for health reasons. Ino, 55, has served the labor movement for decades, most recently as sergeant-at-arms of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, executive board member of Laborers Local 483, and as a longtime union steward at Oregon Zoo, where she worked as a ticket seller.
Ino grew up in Honolulu, and earned a degree in political science from Willamette University in Salem in 1987. She became a union activist in 1990 with Service Employees International Union Local 503 when she went to work for the University of Oregon library. It was there she got active politically with the Eugene Springfield Solidarity Network. At Local 503 she became chief steward and district director, and was t