Rutgers becomes the first college in the region — and possibly the nation — to require COVID-19 vaccines for students in the fall

Rutgers has become the first university in the region, and perhaps in the country, to require its 71,000 students on all three campuses to get the COVID-19 vaccine before they arrive in the fall.

The university announced its decision Thursday, noting that exceptions would be made for students who have medical or religious reasons and those who plan to take only online courses.

But Antonio Calcado, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the university, said that he expects very few exemptions and that 95% of students will get the vaccine. If they don’t, they won’t be permitted to return to campus, he said.

“We are looking to build the safest campus in the United States,” he said. “COVID is here to stay … and we have to find strategies to kind of live alongside of it.”

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Requiring vaccinations is not unprecedented and for years has helped decrease the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases on campuses. Many universities require incoming students to have had vaccines for diseases like meningitis, measles, and chicken pox, with exemptions and waivers. But they haven’t yet made decisions on how to handle the COVID-19 vaccine.

Anita L. Barkin, cochair of the COVID-19 task force for the American College Health Association, said she wasn’t aware of any other colleges that had decided to require vaccines.

“We know that this is a topic that is being discussed on many campuses, but to our knowledge this is the first school that has made a definite decision,” she said.

Many schools are waiting for the vaccines to become fully authorized, she said. They are currently only approved for emergency use. They’re also monitoring availability of the vaccines and eligibility, though that looks to be less of a barrier as supplies increase and more adults become eligible.

Area schools, including Temple, La Salle, St. Joseph’s, Villanova, and Pennsylvania State Universities, the University of Pennsylvania, and Swarthmore College, said Thursday they were still weighing the issue and had not made a decision.

“We will monitor progress of the vaccine, prevailing health conditions and state and federal health guidance to aid our decision-making,” said Lawrence Lokman, vice president of strategic communications at Penn State.

Nancy Santos Gainer, a spokesperson for West Chester University, part of Pennsylvania’s 14-school state system, said state system universities don’t have the legal authority to mandate the vaccines for students.

Discussions likely will intensify in the coming weeks as many colleges have announced they are planning a fall semester with more in-person classes and students living on campus. Many campuses have had hundreds — in some cases thousands — of coronavirus cases since the pandemic started and have had to move some or all classes online. (Rutgers has had 2,348 cases since the pandemic started, though most of its instruction is online and most students aren’t living on campus.) Colleges are hopeful the availability of vaccines will lead to more normal operations, key to a sector that’s been hit hard financially by the pandemic.

Calcado said that once President Joe Biden announced that all adults should be eligible for vaccines by May 1, Rutgers officials felt comfortable requiring students to get the shots.

» READ MORE: As more vaccine becomes available, local leaders say President Biden's May 1 goal can be achieved

“We always had this on the burner,” he said, “but were not able to really move on it. That was a big game-changer for us.”

Staff and faculty will be strongly encouraged but not required to get the vaccine, he said. The difference is that students are very active and mobile and are already required to get some vaccines for entrance.

“What we’re doing is adding another vaccine to the requirement,” he said.

Rutgers has been approved by New Jersey to run on-campus clinics to offer vaccines to faculty, staff, and students, but the vaccine supply is not yet available, the school said. Calcado hopes it will be within the next month. But the university is asking those eligible not to wait and to register with the state to get the vaccine.

Rutgers will help any student who wants the vaccine for fall attendance to get it, a university spokesperson said, so access should not be a barrier.

Vaccine rollout in New Jersey has gone better than it has in Pennsylvania and as of Thursday one in five adults in New Jersey had been fully vaccinated, according to NJ.com.

By requiring vaccination, Rutgers officials said, the campus will be able to return to pre-pandemic normal more quickly and offer more face-to-face courses and activities.

There’s support among students. The student newspaper, the Daily Targum, in an editorial last month urged students to get vaccinated for the sake of the community and faculty and staff who are older and may be at risk.

“Students who can get vaccinated absolutely should, and those who cannot or will not should consider another semester online,” the editorial said.