Get vaccinated and win $1,000: Penn State announces weekly incentives for COVID-19 vaccines
Penn State has declined so far to require the COVID-19 vaccine, instead aiming to compel students and employees to get the shot(s) through an “incentivization model” — which saw specifics released Monday.
The university outlined three incentives for those who receive the vaccination and share proof by uploading documents online via myUHS (or via SalesForce Health Cloud for World Campus, or via the Return to Work website for employees). Every week, from June 7 through Aug. 23, those who have confirmed their vaccinations and filled out an online eligibility form will be entered into a drawing for:
- $1,000 payment (one winner; subject to taxes for employees)
- $100 Barnes & Noble gift card (four winners)
- Football signed by Penn State coach James Franklin (one winner)
All students and employees who received the vaccine, regardless of when, are eligible.
The announcement comes about a month after university President Eric Barron first alluded to the incentivization model during a faculty senate meeting in late April. Since his remarks, both the faculty senate and University Park’s undergraduate student government have passed resolutions asking for a vaccine requirement, with university administration bristling at the suggestion.
“I am hoping that by making it easy and incentivizing and having the significance of the incentives grow that, through time, this will create an environment — especially as more and more data is available — that will create an overwhelming population that realizes the significance of it,” Barron said in April, referring to the vaccine.
It was not immediately known if more incentives could be on the way. Reached by the CDT, a university spokesperson said they “may adjust as appropriate.”
Still, infections continue to decrease as vaccination numbers continue to increase. Centre County saw its COVID rate peak in mid-December, when averaging 121 cases per day. Now, that daily average is down to about 11 cases per day, based on public data aggregated by the New York Times.
Pennsylvania has seen similar decreases, leading to the commonwealth lifting most COVID-19 restrictions Monday. The main restriction still in place is a mask-wearing requirement that won’t go away until June 28 or until 70% of adults are fully vaccinated, whatever comes first. (Some 53.5% of adults were fully vaccinated as of Saturday.)
Gov. Tom Wolf and acting Physician General Denise Johnson have said they will not mandate vaccines for college students and will leave such decisions up to individual universities. To date, statewide, 17 colleges have mandated the vaccine, including Bucknell, Carnegie Mellon and Penn.
Penn State will no longer require vaccinated individuals to wear masks inside after June 28, and it continues to encourage all students, staff and faculty to get vaccinated. University Health Services will hold a vaccine clinic from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 28-29 in Alumni Hall at the HUB-Robeson Center — more details will be forthcoming — and vaccine appointments are no longer difficult to come by throughout most of Centre County.
To search for appointments, go to vaccines.gov or vaccinespotter.org.
“I strongly urge everyone in our community to get immunized as soon as possible and to share their proof of vaccination with the university so we can better assess the vaccination rates across our population,” Barron said Monday in a written statement.
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 11:32 AM.
