May 14, 2021 3 min read

Carnegie-Mellon University has joined a growing list of colleges and universities that will require students attending in-person classes in the fall to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Pittsburgh university joins Dickinson University, Muhlenberg College and the University of Pennsylvania as Pennsylvania schools that have announced in recent weeks they’ll require students to get the vaccine in time for the fall semester.

More than 340 colleges and universities across the country have said they will require vaccines for at least some students or employees, according to data from the Chronicle for Higher Education.

New York state announced Monday that the vaccine will be mandatory for students attending on-campus classes at its public colleges and universities, pending the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granting full approval for COVID-19 vaccines.

Meanwhile, governors in other states, including Utah, Texas, Florida and Montana, have signed orders banning higher education institutions from mandating students get the vaccine.

In Pennsylvania, the Wolf administration strongly encourages students at Pennsylvania colleges and universities to get the vaccine, and said it will work with schools to get students vaccinated.

It is not mandatory, however.

“The COVID-19 vaccine will allow post-secondary institutions to provide more in-person learning and improve the safety of our campus communities for our students, faculty, and staff,” Acting Secretary of Education Noe Ortega last month.

The Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania, which includes Waynesburg University and Washington & Jefferson College, said the organization is not taking a position on the vaccination issue and that it is up to each member school to make a decision.

Locally, Waynesburg University does not plan to require students on campus to be vaccinated in the fall, but strongly recommends students and staff to get it.

Washington & Jefferson College has not yet made a decision on its COVID-19 vaccine requirements, but expects to do so in the upcoming weeks.

California University of Pennsylvania is a member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, where David Pidgeon, public relations director for PASSHE, said universities in Pennsylvania don’t have the legal authority to mandate students and employees get the COVID vaccine because no legislation specifically provides that authorization.

In a message issued on its website, CMU said, “Consistent with scientific evidence on the importance of vaccine adoption to control spread of the virus, to the extent permissible by law, Carnegie Mellon University will require all enrolled students to be vaccinated for COVID-19, effective this fall semester.”

Students will be required to provide documentation of their vaccination before school starts.

Following federal and state law, CMU will consider medical or religious exemptions to all vaccine requirements for faculty and staff.

CMU also is considering requiring its Pittsburgh-based faculty and staff to be vaccinated.

College and universities have several vaccination requirements in place for diseases such as tetanus, whooping cough and polio. Those institutions, in most cases, allow exemptions based on medical or religious reasons.

But, in addition to the political climate that has turned the COVID-19 into a partisan issue, part of the debate over whether or not schools can mandate the vaccine is because the three COVID-19 vaccines available are approved under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization, which allows for them to be distributed before formal approval.

Full FDA approval is expected before the start of the 2021-22 school year, but the timeline for that final authorization isn’t clear.