Drew University Seventh New Jersey College to Join Vaccine Mandate

By Jhoana T. Merino-Martinez

News Editor

Drew University becomes the seventh college in New Jersey to mandate its students to be fully vaccinated before the fall semester, according to NJ.com.

This adds to the existing list of state universities who have adopted this policy, like Rutgers, New Jersey City University, Stevens Institute of Technology, Montclair State University, Princeton and, our very own, Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Drew University said that students taking online courses will be considered for exemption from this policy, along with other medical or religious reasons.

Drew is also considering whether to require vaccination for its faculty and staff members.

There are mixed feelings about the mandate all across the state, with a NJ assemblywoman even working on introducing a bill to ban it for HIPAA privacy violation, as a previous Equinox article reports.

Regardless of its political nature, a real problem is vaccine hesitancy, a phenomenon which state officials worry may be a speed bump in the road to immunizing 4.7 million people by July, reports NJ Spotlight.

If you have any questions or concerns about the vaccines, please refer to the official CDC site.

COVID-19 Numbers

The following is the latest COVID-19 cases for yesterday and today. There were 2,111 new positive COVID-19 tests in New Jersey, with 187 cases from Bergen County.