Rutgers University enforces Covid vaccine mandate for all returning students

The university has decided to continue with its vaccine mandate for the upcoming school year, over two years after it was first implemented, according to Newsweek.

Rutgers states that while students can submit exemptions for medical or religious reasons, "Exemption requests are evaluated on a case-by-case basis; they are NOT automatically granted."

If given an exemption, "on-campus participation is not guaranteed, and is dependent on the overall course of the pandemic, the rate and efficacy of vaccination, and the student’s academic program."

Students that are granted exemptions from the mandate will not be allowed to live in on-campus housing.

According to No College Mandates, a group that tracks Covid policies in higher education, more than 100 schools still require vaccines in order to attend in-person classes.

Antonio Calcado, chief operating officer at Rutgers University, told NewsNation, "If their choice is that they cannot be here under these conditions, we understand that. We wanted to give them that … opportunity, though, to make that choice and not be rushed into that choice."

New Jersey Sen. Declan O’Scanlon told the outlet that he was ready to stand alongside students who may be disenrolled from the university over their vaccination status.

“For Rutgers, which should be the preeminent scientific institution, public institution in New Jersey, to be clinging to this now anti-science and punishing students — life-changing punishment, by the way — is outrageous. The administrators at Rutgers should be ashamed of themselves,” O’Scanlon said.

This comes as Morris Brown College, an Atlanta-based private institution, reinstituted a mask mandate for its students.