Usually, when one is moving into a dorm there are a few things a prospective student needs, a computer, textbooks, perhaps a poster or two.
But this Fall, students at the University of Michigan who wish to live on campus will need something else.
A vaccination.
The Hartford Courant reports that “President Mark Schlissel said shots will not be mandated for faculty, staff and other students “at this time,” but he strongly encouraged everyone to get vaccinated. The requirement will allow residence halls to operate safely at nearly normal capacity, he said, after there were more than 600 infections in dorms last fall despite a mask requirement and other restrictions.”
The University of Michigan joins a number of universities around the country including, Yale, Georgetown, George Washington, Notre Dame, Duke, as well as the entire University of California system.
More colleges will likely follow. U of M’s decision is prudent as college campuses have been a hotspot for Covid-19 infections.
A report in Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering detailed this:
“Researchers observed that more than half the institutions had spikes of more than 1,000 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people per week in the first two weeks of class.
By the end of the fall semester, in some colleges, as many 1 in 5 students were Covid-19 positive, with four campuses reporting more than 5,000 cases.”
With approximately 9,700 students along with an additional 2,400 graduate students living on campus, Michigan is smart to require vaccinations to help curb the potential spread.
Michigan is the second public college after Oakland University to require vaccination before moving in this fall.
However, colleges could possibly have trouble implementing this in the future as the Michigan House recently proposed an initiative to restrict schools’ ability to require vaccinations.
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