NEW JERSEY — Rutgers University announced it will require all students receive the COVID-19 vaccine by the fall 2021 semester.
All students enrolled for the fall semester must be vaccinated before arriving on campus, the university said Thursday.
“We are committed to health and safety for all members of our community, and adding COVID-19 vaccination to our student immunization requirements will help provide a safer and more robust college experience for our students,” said Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway.
The announcement comes as the federal government set a directive to have vaccine doses available for all adults by the end of May.
Students may request an exemption from the vaccine for medical and religious reasons, the school said.
As vaccine supplies are made more available, Rutgers faculty and staff are advised to receive the shot.
Vaccination is key to stopping the current pandemic and to the return of campus instruction and activities closer to what we were accustomed to before the pandemic drastically changed life at Rutgers,” said Brian Strom, chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences and executive vice president for health affairs at Rutgers.
Students enrolled at Rutgers who are under the age of 18 will be advised to receive the Pfizer vaccine, which allows teens ages 16 and 17 to get vaccinated.
Members of the Rutgers community are urged to pre-register for the vaccine.
