Hundreds of Colleges Requiring Students to Be Vaccinated - McKee Refuses to Mandate
Monday, May 03, 2021
Hundreds of colleges across the country are requiring their students to be fully vaccinated in order to return to campus to take in classroom instruction in the fall.
Locally, Brown and Roger Williams Universities have already mandated it as has the University of Massachusetts system, but not Rhode Island’s public college system.
There are no plans to require students to be vaccinated -- as experts consistently recommend college students do so, less for the impact on the students, and more for how they have proven to be spreaders to their parents and grandparents during breaks.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTRhode Island has seen numerous college outbreaks including at Providence College and the University of Rhode Island.
While few college students die from the virus, a portion does have long-term adverse health impacts -- those are called long haulers.
“Governor McKee encourages all students, faculty and staff to get vaccinated. The Governor supports the decision of local colleges and universities to require COVID-19 vaccines just as they require other vaccines like the Chicken Pox vaccine,” said McKee’s office in a statement to GoLocal.
URI's spokesperson Linda Acciardo made similar comments, "No decision has been made for fall 2021. At this time we continue to encourage all members of our community to be vaccinated as soon as they are able to get an appointment. Should we make a decision about requiring vaccinations for COVID-19 we will communicate that widely to our community."
Currently, McKee is acting much more like a red state governor -- slow to put mandates in place and reluctant to issue requirements.
Inside High Ed reports, “Chris Marsicano, an assistant professor of education practice at Davidson College in North Carolina, and director of the Davidson-based College Crisis Initiative, which researches colleges' responses to the pandemic, said he expects to see more colleges incentivizing vaccines. But he also expects a 'flood' of colleges announcing requirements if and when any of the COVID-19 vaccines receive full approval from the Federal Drug Administration.”
“I see the blue state/red state divide, but I don’t think by the end of all of this there’s going to be this divide as much,” Marsicano said. “What we’re seeing is early adopters, and what’s driving the early adopters is less blue state/red state but eliteness and the desire to be the standard-bearer. The wrinkle in all of this is we’re beginning to see some state legislatures introduce bills that would prohibit colleges from mandating vaccines. If those were to pass, then that’ll be the big red state/blue state divide.”
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