Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Nick Carbonaro’s name.
Correction: Annahita Mahdavi West’s name has been modified to reflect her new last name.
The board of trustees will vote on a resolution later today at 5:30 P.M, which will mandate COVID-19 vaccines for professors and students to attend in-person classes starting in the spring semester, and professors have already begun speaking out against it.
“What’s going to happen if a Trump-like facist comes back in 2024 and they mandate something? Who is going to stand up against them?”asked LBCC associate professor Annahita Mahdavi West who is against the upcoming resolution.
If passed, the resolution would become effective Feb. 7, 2022 for students, at the start of LBCC’s spring semester. If unvaccinated, students will be excluded from participating on campus and will be marked absent without excuse.
Mahdavi West, who is originally from Iran, reflected on her own life experiences where she claims to have lived under tyranny as part of a regime that began with mandates claiming to be for the wellbeing of others.
Mahdavi West said, “The claim was that it was for the wellbeing of the public and that it was justified … one mandate after the other. 40 years later it’s facism and the mandates are the law of the land”.
In her letter to the board of trustees, Mahdavi West stresses that she is not anti-vaccination and maintains that she is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. She mentioned her dislike for conspiracy theorists and QAnon supporters who spread journalistic misinformation.
Mahdavi West is a supporter of individuals having autonomy over their own body as it concerns medical procedures. “My body, my choice is not a wrong ideology to bring to this picture. If you are going to give (me) an injection and I know exactly the precautions of getting the vaccine or not getting it then there are other options to be done,” she said.
LBCC’s current in-person instruction policy is that students must receive weekly testing if they are not fully vaccinated and wear masks while on campus.
Mahdavi West highlighted how well remote instruction has been for her own class enrollment and argues that online instruction should’ve been part of the resolution. However, it should be noted that the resolution makes no mention of eliminating online instruction as an option for students.
“There are other things that we can do and I’m not saying they (unvaccinated students) should be able to go on campus but we can continue testing and continue with online classes,” said Mahdavi West.
Mahdavi West added, “What is the rationale behind having teachers who are online being required to be vaccinated? A lot of professors are going to be without a job by spring and a lot of students are going to leave Long Beach City College.”
Assistant professor Nick Carbonaro shared similar concerns about the vaccine mandate for students, saying, “Personally for me, I am against this resolution because of the fact that for students it’s very ambiguous. It doesn’t clearly define what it is.”
He continued, “The way that I read it is that even students who are 100% online will have to be vaccinated.”
With all the changes that have happened since the pandemic began, concerns about future student enrollment were equally expressed by Carbonaro on how this mandate could potentially impact student success and LBCC’s future hire prospects.
Carbonaro said, “They’re trying to say that if we mandate vaccines then more people will feel safe, so more people will come on to campus. Unfortunately what they don’t take into consideration is that there is a strong contingency in Long Beach that do not believe in this who will quit their job, not go to school or go to another college that will allow them to do online learning.”
Carbonaro said he supports students who also shared concerns for this mandate and expressed that being more proactive would help to ensure their voices are heard at a greater level.
An email sent before publication to the LBCCFA (Long Beach City College Faculty Association) was not able to be returned on short notice.
To view the board of trustees meeting, click on this link. https://www.youtube.com/c/LongBeachCityCollege1/live