At least five U.S. colleges and universities have announced plans to require students to be fully vaccinated before returning to campuses in the fall.
Students attending Cornell University, Rutgers University, Fort Lewis College, New Southeastern University and St. Louis University. Edward will need to be fully vaccinated before returning to campus in the fall, with limited exemptions for the underlying medical conditions and religious beliefs.
“A widely vaccinated student provides our best hope for a return to the hands-on, inclusive, experiential, personalized learning environment that we have all loved,” said the letter from Tom Stritikus, president of Fort Lewis College, in the university community.
“As such, all students who enroll in FLC during the fall semester of 2021 will be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine,” Stritikus added.
In a letter to the Cornell community, President Martha E. Pollack wrote that the university “intends to require vaccination for students returning to the Ithaca, Geneva and Cornell Tech campuses during the fall semester.”
Pollack wrote that the decision was made after “recent announcements about vaccine elevation in New York and other states and increased vaccine production,” making it “likely” that community members they may receive a vaccine in the spring or summer.
Pollack added that people who cannot be inoculated before their arrival during the fall semester, or that New York State does not recognize vaccination, “are expected to be vaccinated as soon as possible and Cornell is researching ways to facilitate this process “.
Rutgers University leaders wrote a letter to their community last month in writing: “The expected additional availability of the COVID-19 vaccine allows Rutgers to take steps to protect the health of our academic community and move toward a full return to our normal pandemic as a vibrant institution in the fall of 2021 “.
New Southeastern University released a statement Friday announcing its intention to resume “full, face-to-face classroom learning for field courses” in the fall semester and its requirement for students, faculty and staff to return to the campuses are fully vaccinated.
On March 29, the COVID-19 management team at the University of St. Edward announced that the university will require the COVID-19 vaccine for all campus employees and students 16 years of age or older, beginning Sept. 1.
Advertisements from various universities arrive as the data show that college students are a major factor in the virus. According to the New York Times, more than 120,000 cases of coronavirus have been linked to U.S. universities and colleges since Jan. 1 and more than 530,000 cases since the start of the pandemic.
Some universities, however, do not yet enforce vaccine requirements, but rather try to encourage inoculation of students. Dickinson State University, for example, said students who show evidence of a full range of immunizations may be exempt from the current full-campus mask warrant.