This Bud’s for the vaccinated. So many shots to go before that first beer
This Bud’s for the vaccinated. So many shots to go before that first beer
IU goes to the honor system for its vaccination requirement. Purdue holds tight. And how far Tippecanoe County has to go, by ZIP Code to get that beer
A little of this, a little of that in another free edition of Based in Lafayette …
Vax Returns: IU adjusts under Statehouse pressure; Purdue’s all, like, nothing to see over here
Closing the loop after last week’s Indiana Statehouse pressure campaign to get the state’s two biggest universities to step back from COVID-19 vaccination requirements for students, faculty and staff, Indiana University reeled things in a bit this week.
IU officials announced Tuesday that a vaccine requirement would stand for the fall 2021 semester. The twist: The Bloomington campus won’t require proof.
How that’s going to work isn’t exactly clear, beyond the honor system and offering what the university called “incentives” for self-reporting. But when Attorney General Todd Rokita went after the universities for, in his interpretation, going sideways on the state’s new prohibition on “vaccine passports,” his opinion differentiated between schools being allowed to require COVID-19 shots (Allowed) and being forced to show proof of vaccination (Not Allowed).
For more, check the story from the IndyStar: Responding to criticism, IU still mandating COVID-19 vaccine but won't require proof
Meanwhile, Gov. Eric Holcomb told WTHR during a setup for Sunday’s Indy 500 that he doesn’t plan to use an executive order to force IU’s hand on its campus vaccine policy, as a group of Indiana House Republicans had asked him to do. After calling the lawmakers’ request “a little rich,” Holcomb said told the TV stations: “There’s more than one way to skin a cat. … The conversations are ongoing right now. But I don’t plan on doing an executive order.”
Here’s a clip from that interview:
What does it all mean for Purdue? Officials on the West Lafayette campus have been keeping a low profile, letting IU shoulder this one. Purdue will require vaccinations ahead of the fall semester. But the university gives students, staff and faculty an out if they don’t want to prove they got a shot: Submit to the random testing protocol that was such a hassle – a necessary one, Purdue President Mitch Daniels said, to stay open last year – the past two semesters. (And nobody wants that, again.) Rokita grudgingly allowed that Purdue used a technical loophole IU had failed to find.
Here are a few looks at the whole deal from last week:
As GOP attacks IU’s vaccine requirement, how Mitch Daniels and Purdue thread the needle
Todd Rokita rips IU, Purdue, but will schools have to change student vaccination plans?
The Vax Sweepstakes at Purdue and IU: Keeping score
Biden sets 70% COVID-19 vaccination goal by July 4; where Tippecanoe County stands, by ZIP Code
Speaking of vaccines: President Joe Biden on Wednesday came at America with promises of free beer, Xboxes, plane tickets and more if the country could get to a 70% COVID-19 vaccination goal by July Fourth.
So, how close are we, heading into what Biden called a “national month of action” during the pandemic?
The Journal & Courier has a version of a tracker from USA Today, showing Tippecanoe County had an overall, fully vaccinated rate of 43%. Here’s the J&C account.
The state rate was 43.3%, as of early this week, according to Indiana State Department of Health figures.
As of Wednesday, only 17 of of 775 ZIP Codes in Indiana had 70% of their populations fully vaccinated, according to a quick analysis of state data.
In Tippecanoe County, here’s how that shakes out top to bottom by ZIP Code, for residents age 12 and older fully vaccinated, according to state data this week. (Included here are ZIP Codes that include a piece of Tippecanoe County.)
47920 (Battle Ground, pop. 1,899): 59.7%
47906 (West Lafayette, pop. 69,935): 56.4%
47905 (Lafayette, pop. 34,609): 48.7%
47992 (West Point, pop. 1,204): 46.8%
47909 (southern Lafayette, pop. 35,661): 43.5%
47983 (Stockwell, pop. 230): 43.0%
47901 (downtown Lafayette, pop. 3,365): 42.9%
46058 (Mulberry area, pop. 2,093): 41.3%
47970 (Otterbein, pop. 1,557): 40.1%
47918 (Attica area, pop. 4,918): 38.7%
47955 (Linden area, pop. 847): 38.3%
47941 (Dayton, pop. 1,200): 37.8%
46923 (Delphi area, pop. 6,999): 36.4%
47930 (Clarks Hill, pop. 1,038): 36.2%
47967 (New Richmond, pop. 566): 34.8%
47904 (Lafayette, near downtown neighborhoods, pop. 14,708): 34.4%
47981 (Romney, pop. 956): 28.9%
47924 (Buck Creek, pop. 162): 24.7%
That’s a lot of ground to cover before we get to crack that first free beer from Anheuser-Busch.
Coming down, as we speak, in downtown Lafayette
Construction started in earnest this week on Lafayette’s $55 million, four-story public safety building – one more giant hole in downtown in a summer of a lot of giant holes in downtown.
As big equipment tore up asphalt near the corner of North Sixth and Columbia streets, crews on scissor lifts were dismantling the former Columbia Ballroom/Midtowne Oven/Sylvia’s Brick Oven/Etc./Etc. brick-by-brick. The city’s plan, at this point, is to take apart the façade of the building – initially built as a car repair garage – clean and store the brick, with hopes of incorporating it as a historic touch to an otherwise modern-looking structure (one that didn’t necessarily win the hearts of preservationists). Dennis Carson, the city’s economic development director, has talked about the salvaged brick providing a storefront for pop-up businesses once the police headquarters and 468-space parking garage open in 2023.
Had some great pizza from that brick oven. Went to some kick-ass wedding receptions in that ballroom. Get a picture before it’s gone.
Welcome (back) to the jungle
And … tickets go on sale Friday for Guns n’ Roses rescheduled tour – including a date in Indy, bumped from July 18 to Sept. 8. (Insert your own joke about Lafayette Jeff’s Axl Rose and getting to the stage by showtime …)
For good measure, because 1.2 billion views on the official video – that’s what the YouTube counter says – why not go out on this today:
COMING TO YOUR INBOX LATER TODAY: Wednesday evening, they sent retiring West Lafayette Superintendent Rocky Killion off with the West Lafayette fight song at his last school board meeting during his 14 years with the district. Then the board got down to business about the superintendent search in a district that ranks among tops in Indiana.
“I'm not going to say we got lucky with Rocky, but it really worked out for West Lafayette schools,” Alan Karpick, president of the West Lafayette Community School Corp. board. “We know we have a big job to get it right, again."
I’ll have details in subscribers’ inboxes later Thursday.
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