By Leonard Robinson
Numerous colleges and universities planning to welcome students back in the fall are looking to mandatory vaccinations as the pathway to success.
St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas is among the country’s first universities to require a Covid-19 vaccine to reside in on-campus housing and attend in-person events in the fall. Students who failed to submit proof of vaccination or an exemption form based on medical or religious reasons would not be allowed to live on campus, use campus facilities, or take in-person classes.
On April 6, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order prohibiting state agencies or agencies that receive state funding from requiring documentation of a coronavirus vaccination. The university, within hours, reiterated in a statement that they would not deny services to students submitting documentation or who possess a qualifying exemption, which includes a student declining to provide the university their vaccination status.
In Ithaca, New York, Cornell University has joined Rutgers University in New Jersey, Brown University in Rhode Island, and Northeastern University in Boston in requiring vaccinations with only medical and religious exemptions.
“Medical and religious exemptions will be accommodated, but the expectation that will be that overwhelmingly consist of vaccinated individuals, greatly reducing the risk of infection for all,” Cornell President Martha Pollack and Provost Michael Kotlikoff said in a statement.
Nova Southeastern University in Broward County, Florida, and Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado have also said that vaccinations would be required to return to campus in the fall.
Many colleges and universities already require a host of vaccination requirements, such as polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus. Adding COVID-19 vaccinations to the myriad of other vaccinations will help provide a “safer and more robust college experience for our students,” said Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway.
Rutgers has also received approval from the state of New Jersey to distribute vaccines to faculty, students, and staff as soon as supplies permit. Other universities, such as Northeastern University, remain unable to offer vaccines to students but provide additional help to international students.
Parents, however, are not yet entirely convinced about the vaccine’s efficacy.
Only 58% of parents or caregivers supported vaccinating their children, despite 70% supporting vaccinating themselves, according to a poll from a national advocacy group, Parents Together.
“Colleges do need to get ahead of this and think about how this is going to play out,” said Bethany Robertson, co-founder and director of Parents Together.
