California’s massive UC and Cal State systems plan to require COVID-19 vaccinations this fall
Nina Agrawal, Teresa Watanabe, Colleen Shalby
April 22, 2021
The University of California and California State University announced Thursday that they will require COVID-19 vaccinations for all students, faculty and staff on campus properties this fall once the Food and Drug Administration gives formal approval to the vaccines and supplies are sufficiently available.
The directive is the largest of its kind in U.S. higher education, affecting more than 1 million members of the two public university systems. More than five dozen colleges nationwide have already announced they will require vaccination for enrollment this fall, including Yale, Princeton, Columbia and, in Claremont, Pomona and Claremont McKenna.
But the UC and Cal State systems have not yet taken that step because of questions over the legality of requiring vaccines before they have been formally approved by the FDA. Currently, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are being distributed under emergency use authorization, although health experts expect full approval of at least one of them by the fall. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is on pause after reports of rare blood clots.
