Updated at 9:34 a.m.
The Goddard College staff union has filed an unfair labor practice with the National Labor Relations Board following a weekslong fight with the school administration over vaccine and mask mandates.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Goddard College has allowed staff to work from home, but when Dan Hocoy came on as the new president last month, he decided to bring the staff back to campus and told them they had five weeks to get situated — and vaccinated.
“We believe our students are better served when the staff is back on campus. Obviously, during Covid, remote work was necessary, but now we have vaccines, and we want all our staff to be vaccinated,” Hocoy said in an interview.
Hocoy wants a vaccine mandate, while the union wants one for masks instead, arguing in a press release that all the other colleges and universities participating in the Vermont Department of Health’s weekly Covid-19 safety discussions have mask mandates.
“We all know based on the science that that’s not gonna work, that the safest environment is when everyone is vaccinated,” Hocoy said. “I’ve honestly been surprised by how resistant staff union leadership is to seeing that.”
Carl Etnier, co-chair of the Goddard College staff union, said in an interview that Hocoy has been incorrectly characterizing the union as opposed to a vaccine mandate because staff members said they would accept it with the option to opt out and get tested weekly instead.
Goddard College staff union represents staff members only, not faculty. Staff mostly work on the Plainfield campus, but many have been working remotely throughout the pandemic, Etnier said.
The disagreement came to a head on Aug. 10 after Hocoy announced staff members would have five weeks to get vaccinated and make arrangements to come back to work on campus.
Hocoy said after the initial five weeks, the union asked for two more weeks, which the administration granted. In the most recent negotiation on Sept. 10, the union asked for an additional three weeks, and the administration said no.
“Our proposal was as long as community transmission in Washington County, where Goddard College is, or the adjacent counties is moderate or higher, the mask mandate would remain in place,” Etnier said.
That Wednesday, Sept. 15, the administration told the union it was cutting off negotiations.
“They wanted exceptions to our vaccination rule. They wanted to push back when they would be vaccinated and come back to campus. We don’t think the mask is a substitute for vaccination,” Hocoy said. “Quite honestly, I’m surprised to find people who are opposed to vaccination here in central Vermont.”
The union filed the unfair labor practice because “the administration has a requirement to negotiate in good faith with the union and they abruptly broke off the negotiations,” Etnier said.
Goddard has three campuses, one in Plainfield and two in Washington state. Hocoy said each campus has a specific policy, following government directives responding to the local Covid-19 conditions. For the Washington campuses, that means each staff member will be required to be vaccinated by Oct. 18.
In Vermont, there is neither a mask nor a vaccine mandate.
“Because of how contentious this has turned out to be, we are tying local campus policy to a clear and objective standard” based on science, local conditions and recommendations of the state, Hocoy said.
The administration is not against masks and still recommends everyone wear one regardless of vaccination status, Hocoy said.
Goddard College is different from other colleges and universities in the state because even before the pandemic, its students did the majority of learning from home. Students come to campus only once a semester for eight days, according to the college’s website. For the remaining 16 weeks, students work individually and send “packets” of the work they are doing to faculty advisers.
Hocoy said he is also intent on staff vaccination because he has offered Goddard residencies to Afghan refugees and climate refugees.
“At this moment in time, I think Goddard has a responsibility to be fully vaccinated,” Hocoy said. “I think that’s how we play a role in our country’s participatory democracy, and that has been our tradition.”
