Mandatory vaccination policies divide US college campuses
Every year, millions of students worry about whether their grades will be good enough to win a place at their dream university, and if they can afford to pay for a college education.
This September, many will have to meet a new requirement: proof of full vaccination against Covid-19.
Hundreds of US universities and colleges have made full vaccination mandatory for students who want to live and study on campus in the autumn, arguing that it will create a safer environment for in-person teaching.
“I’m glad about it,” said Alex, a business student at New York University, who declined to give his surname. “It’s reassuring to know that we’ll be with people who are definitely vaccinated.”
While some students feel more comfortable attending lectures and playing sports with vaccinated peers, the policies have angered others who argue that compulsory jabs are unethical, highlighting the issues that mandating vaccination can create.
“I think it’s horrendous and harmful,” said Chaida Bango Bango, an English student at the University of Maryland, who joined others last week to protest against her university’s decision to require vaccination.
“I’m all about personal autonomy. If you want to get the vaccine every day for the rest of the year, go ahead.”
About 20m students enrolled at universities across the US last year, a large swath of the population which, if vaccinated, would help to reduce infection levels and the risk of new variants evolving.
Anyone aged over 18 can receive one of three Covid jabs in the US, where access to the vaccine has been rapidly expanded. Other countries including the UK and much of mainland Europe have yet to immunise young adults, so similar policies have not been introduced.
Rutgers University in New Jersey was the first to announce that its students must be fully vaccinated before returning in the autumn. Hundreds of institutions have followed since, including some of the country’s most prestigious schools such as Yale, Stanford and Harvard.
“The mandate is ethical and should be done,” said Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges & Universities which has over 1,200 members.
“Students going to a classroom or lab shouldn’t have to be worried that they’re going to be placed at risk.”
The universities say that students must be fully vaccinated before returning, meaning two weeks after their Johnson & Johnson shot or the second dose of the Moderna or BioNTech/Pfizer jabs. Exemptions are given on religious or medical grounds.
For international students, which America’s top institutions rely on for a steady stream of income, vaccines will be available at pop-up sites on some campuses, leaving no room for avoidance. Otherwise students are encouraged to get vaccinated as soon as they land in the US.
Columbia and Harvard are among the universities asking students to upload proof of vaccination online while others such as Yale are still fine tuning the details of how best to check.
Jeffrey Nolan, an education lawyer at Holland & Knight, said as long as universities kept students’ data secure, there was no legal issue with asking for proof of vaccination. “They’re saying you can make your own choices, however if you make the choice to come to our campus you must take the vaccine,” he said.
Protests have sprung up across the country in opposition to the policies. Hundreds of Rutgers students took to the streets in May objecting against the university’s decision while in Annapolis, students rallied against the University of Maryland System’s vaccine requirement.
Nolan compared vaccine mandates to other “reasonable safety measures” at universities. “You can’t have a candle in your room to prevent fires, that’s part of the compromise people make when they decide to go to a particular school.”
Some universities fear that mandating vaccines will put off communities of colour, who are more hesitant towards jabs, from attending university altogether.
Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges, which has 15 institutions across the state, said it was crucial to meet the needs of all its students who often face “disproportionate access to the Covid-19 vaccine” and that mandating vaccination could create “additional barriers for our students”.
While private organisations are able to implement their own rules, public universities must follow state rules. This has led to disputes between some universities and their lawmakers, particularly in Republican states including Florida, Texas and Arizona where governors have issued orders banning universities from mandating vaccination or asking for proof.
Last week Todd Rokita, Indiana’s attorney-general, said that Indiana University asking its students for proof of vaccination “clearly runs afoul of state law”. The university then said it would ask students to sign a form attesting they had been immunised, rather than asking for evidence.
In Florida, Nova Southeastern University said it would mandate vaccination in April, only for the state to later introduce a law barring the move. The university then performed a U-turn and is now strongly encouraging its students to get immunised.
The trend in students’ opinions regarding vaccination mirrors that of the wider US. Almost a third of Republican students say they would not get vaccinated, compared to 4 per cent of Democrats, according to figures from the research firm College Pulse.
Requiring vaccines was a radical but necessary shift in attitudes in the US, Pasquerella said. “We’re used to looking at individual rights . . . We need to focus on collective responsibility.”