On Monday, Mayor de Blasio announced that all city employees — some 340,000 people — will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Those who don’t will be subject to weekly testing. It’s an important use of the powers of his office: We all must be doing everything we can to make sure as many people as possible get the vaccine.
That’s why I’m calling on all of the colleges and universities across New York State to step up and ensure everyone in their communities — students, faculty and staff — are vaccinated. That means issuing similar requirements, and it also means more outreach and education to help address the concerns of the hesitant and make sure everyone has access.
It’s an achievable goal. In fact, Rhode Island became the first U.S. state in which every single college or university will require its students to come to campus for the fall semester vaccinated.
I don’t say this often, but it’s time for New York to proudly become No. 2.
We’re well-positioned to do it. New Yorkers saw the awful impact of COVID early on, and we were quick to support the necessary shutdown measures that suppressed its spread. Led by Gov. Cuomo, we successfully brought the virus under control last summer, well before the vaccines arrived, and we responsibly avoided the deadly spike of last winter.
Then, when the vaccines got here, millions of New Yorkers rushed to get inoculated. I remember well the friendly, optimistic feeling at “Javax” — the state-run mass vaccination site at the Javits Center — shared by citizens and National Guard soldiers, medical professionals and helpful volunteers, even those post-shot pianists.
We proved that New York has the resources, the science and the will to take on COVID.
But now our state, like our country, is in a dangerous place. The delta variant is rampaging, starting to drive back up infection numbers that had fallen. Hospitalization rates in our state remain low, because the vaccines work. But we know that not enough people have been vaccinated, that non-vaccination rates remain high among some vulnerable communities, and that college-aged people are lagging their elders in vaccination rates.
Many of New York’s colleges and universities have already issued vaccine requirements, at least for their students. The sprawling SUNY and CUNY systems will require vaccination. Some 52 private colleges and universities in the state have announced student mandates, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. But that’s only a fraction of the private institutions in the state. (Rhode Island had a leg up: It’s home to only 11 colleges or universities.)
At Pace University, where I’m president, we announced in April that all our students will be required to be vaccinated for the fall semester, and in June we extended that requirement to faculty and staff. (Our requirement, like those elsewhere, allows for medical and religious exemptions.)
Overall, 74% of New York adults have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 68% are fully vaccinated. But the numbers are less impressive among the college-aged. Statewide, only about 55% of those aged 16 to 25 have received one dose, and only about 49% are fully vaccinated.
Colleges and universities have a unique role as educators, as community leaders, and frankly as good neighbors to help ensure everyone around us is protected.
We also simply want to get back to normal life. After more than a year of drastic disruption, we are now planning for a near-normal fall semester. We’re excited to have our students back on campus, our classrooms full, our campuses bustling with activity. But we’ll only be able to do that when we know our communities will be safe.
We want to get back to in-person learning and in-person living, to working together, eating together, socializing together. We want to bring back college sports. We want to bring back big, celebratory commencements. We want to do what we always do: Help transform young people’s lives through the power of a college education. But for that to happen, they need to stay healthy. We need to make sure they’re vaccinated.
Krislov is president of Pace University.
