LBCC professor Nick Carbonaro voiced his opposition to a proposed COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students and faculty during an Instagram live with Long Beach Parents United (LBPU) on Thursday.
The live was held just a day after the Board of Trustees decided to postpone the vote on a resolution that would enforce LBCC students and faculty to be fully vaccinated for in-person classes next spring.
In his conversation with Lesley Mitchell of LBPU, an organization that opposes COVID-19 vaccine mandates for children, Carbonaro said he was glad that the Board had decided to postpone the vote.
“I feel it’s one of the biggest votes that Long Beach College has ever done,” said Carbonaro.
“You can’t vote on such a big issue with such unclear details and not knowing the current sentiment of your constituents”, he added.
Carbonaro criticized the resolution for having ambiguous language, and said it seems unclear if students doing fully-online learning will be required to be vaccinated.
Carbonaro said that a vaccine mandate would negatively impact both professors and students in the college community.
“If you take away that option (in-person classes) for students with a vaccine mandate, they may not show up to school next year.”
“They may say ‘I’m gonna decide until I find out that the vaccine is safe’ and take off spring of 2022. What does that do for our adjunct faculty who are dependent on student enrollment in those extra classes?… It’s a ripple down effect, and I don’t know if the Board has taken that into consideration,” Carbonaro continued.
Mitchell believes the vote will affect the entire city of Long Beach, including children enrolled at K-12 schools in LBUSD.
“LBCC is essentially Long Beach’s school,” said Mitchell. “Our children at LBUSD have been made a promise that if they graduate from high school they will get two years of tuition covered. … This is something that doesn’t just affect professors and students. This really affects everybody in Long Beach.”
The resolution states that students will be considered absent from class without excuse if they are not fully vaccinated.
Employees who are not fully vaccinated or do not receive necessary booster shots will also be considered absent without leave.
“Threatening someone’s job over a potential booster that hasn’t even been made yet … shouldn’t be a condition for employment,” said Carbonaro.
If the resolution is passed, Carbonaro said he will view it as an opportunity to “hold the line”.
“I feel that I have a right for a religious exemption. … I definitely have religious issues with the vaccines and how they’re made,” said Carbonaro.
The Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting on Thurs., Oct. 21 at 5:30 p.m. to address agenda items 4.3 (Update on COVID-19 response) and 5.7 (Resolution, COVID-19 Vaccination).
According to an email sent to the campus community, this meeting will provide more time for public comments.
LBPU has encouraged their Instagram followers to leave comments opposing the resolution and contact the members of the Board via email and phone. All public comments must be submitted before 2 p.m. on Thursday.
To watch a livestream of the special meeting, click here.