Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said Pitt is discussing ways to enforce COVID-19 vaccination — for as early as the spring semester — such as tying vaccination status to student enrollment or faculty employment.

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said Thursday that Pitt’s new COVID-19 testing program for the academic year is estimated to cost between $20 and $50 million in order to test unvaccinated students weekly, starting on Monday.

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher reflected on Pitt’s performance during the pandemic in an interview with The Pitt News last Thursday. He also answered questions about planning for the fall semester and a potential COVID-19 vaccine requirement.

Amid rising COVID-19 case numbers, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said Pitt will use similar techniques from the fall to slow the spread of the virus in the spring such as the shelter-in-place period as well as “pods” to limit social interaction.

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher praised how closely most students have followed mitigation measures, amid a rise in COVID-19 cases on campus the COVID-19 Medical Response Office linked to an increase in social gatherings over Halloween.

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said while Pitt has made strides in addressing racial injustice on campus, there is still a lot of work to do in this “seminal” moment.

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said Thursday that he expects the [email protected] model to continue into the spring semester due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He also said it’s likely that next semester’s schedule will be compressed similar to the fall so there aren’t vacations where people leave and come back to campus.

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher announced that a working group charged with investigating Scaife Hall’s name found no reason to continue with the renaming process. Renaming Scaife Hall, home to Pitt’s School of Medicine, was one of Black medical students’ demands that was sent to the School’s dean in June.

Chris Bonneau, the president of the University Senate, said he is confident the planning will allow the University to resume in-person instruction, if state and local regulations permit. 

Travel restrictions and delays in processing visas has left many of Pitt’s 3,100 international students questioning whether they will be able to start the fall semester on campus.