When the coronavirus began to spread around the country last year, most colleges and universities shut their doors. And when they began to reopen in the fall, they did so in piecemeal and convoluted ways.
In some cases, students could live in dorms but had to take classes online. Dining halls were reservation-only. Singing was banned. While some schools avoided major outbreaks, others became hot spots.
The introduction of three Covid-19 vaccines early this year to college populations seemed to present an exit from these patchwork reopenings, which robbed students of a traditional college experience. But an NBC News analysis of rules across the U.S. found that vaccination requirements for students have proven to be just as complicated as the frenetic fall 2020 semester, if not more so.
In Texas, public universities can’t require a vaccination, but private ones can. In Massachusetts, where colleges and universities can mandate Covid-19 vaccinations, 43 of more than 100 had agreed to do so by mid-May. In New York, public universities cannot allow for religious exemptions, while a majority of the state’s private universities can.
That patchwork approach is reflected across the country. An NBC News analysis of nearly 400 colleges and universities that are requiring the Covid-19 vaccination found that the vast majority have unclear directives, loopholes or legal complications that are leaving professors frustrated, students unmotivated and a potential public health crisis come fall. To add to the confusion, among all states and jurisdictions, 19 have statewide regulations for public colleges: Seven require vaccinations for students and 12 do not.
Among other findings in the analysis:
- Sixty-seven percent of schools in Hawaii and 50 percent in New York require vaccinations.
- Schools in 15 states, including Alabama, Florida and Arizona, which have seen some of the highest numbers of Covid-19 cases in the country, do not require their students to be vaccinated.
- Fourteen of the 15 states that do not currently require vaccinations at their colleges or universities voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Arizona is the only state that voted for President Joe Biden that does not require students to get vaccinated.
- Georgia has more than 70 colleges and universities, but only six of them require vaccinations. Of those six, four are historically Black institutions.
- Seventy-five percent of the schools analyzed allow for religious exemptions from vaccination requirements.
- In Michigan, 11 of 15 public colleges and universities remain undecided on requirements altogether.
- In the Northeast, 208 schools are requiring vaccinations, compared to 51 schools in the South.
With no federal guidance and legal boundaries that shift by the week, colleges and universities are struggling to implement plans to safely reopen. And while President Joe Biden has said July 4 will mark a return to normal for the country, university administrations will face a vaccination problem on campus that likely won’t go away anytime soon.
Lorine Najjar, 21, a senior at the University of Colorado Denver, hopes schools find a solution.
“I lost my motivation for school,” she said of remote learning. “I understand why people are scared to get the vaccine, but it will help return us to normal life.”
Read the rest here: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/confusing-rules-loopholes-legal-issues-college-vaccination-plans-are-mess-n1267981