Sac State and CSU to require COVID-19 vaccine for fall 2021, regardless of FDA approval
Vaccination status must be certified before Sept. 13 for Sac State community
Sacramento State announced the COVID-19 vaccine will be required to be on campus for the fall 2021 semester. Students, faculty and staff are required to certify their vaccination status by Sept. 13, according to an email from Sac State President Robert Nelsen. File photo.
July 27, 2021
Sacramento State announced that it is requiring all students, faculty and staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to be on campus in the fall, and they must certify their vaccination status by Sept. 13, according to an email from Sac State President Robert Nelsen.
If an individual is currently not immunized, they must receive their first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine by Aug. 9 or the single-dose Johnson &Johnson vaccine by Aug. 30 in order to be on campus in the fall, Nelsen wrote in the email.
The announcement is in accordance with the California State University system’s press release Tuesday that said that it will require all students, faculty and staff who will be on campus in the fall to receive the COVID-19 vaccination and certify their status before Sept. 30.
CSU previously announced that it intended to make the vaccine a requirement after one or more of the vaccines had been fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or at the beginning of the fall 2021 term, whichever occurred later.
Given the current rise of infection rates across the country and the spread of the delta variant, the CSU is setting a firm deadline to put more pressure on students and faculty at California State campuses to receive their doses, according to CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro.
“Receiving a COVID vaccine continues to be the best way to mitigate the spread of the virus,” Castro said in the press release. “We urge all members of the CSU community to get vaccinated as soon as possible, and announcing this requirement now allows members of the CSU community to receive multiple doses of a vaccine as we head into the beginning of the fall term.”
The CSU will still allow students and employees to seek medical and religious exemptions and said a final policy will be announced in the coming days, according to the press release. Nelsen also said more information will be announced in the coming week and asked faculty to “be flexible” with students who may be unable to attend the first two weeks of face-to-face instruction if they are not fully vaccinated at that point.
