Elizabeth Redden
August 3, 2021
A new statement organized by the American College Health Association and signed by more than two dozen higher education organizations decries state-level restrictions barring colleges from requiring vaccination against COVID-19 or other public health measures such as mask wearing or surveillance testing. The statement describes such restrictions as “dangerous” and calls on government authorities “to empower colleges and universities to use every available public health tool to protect campuses and neighboring communities from a COVID-19 surge this fall.”
The statement, released Monday, notes that many of the state-level restrictions “directly contradict” guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“State actions that prevent the use of established and effective public health tools at the same time as COVID-19 cases increase is a recipe for disaster,” the statement says.
“These restrictions undermine the ability of all organizations, including colleges and universities, to operate safely and fully at a time of tremendous unpredictability. Furthermore, these restrictions prohibit higher education institutions from taking responsible and reasonable public health measures and ultimately threaten the health and safety of students, faculty, staff, and neighboring communities.”
The statement comes as the highly transmissible Delta variant spreads, COVID-19 cases increase nationally and colleges increasingly introduce or broaden vaccination requirements and reimpose mask mandates. But even as more than 600 colleges nationwide have mandated COVID-19 vaccination for students or employees, colleges in a number of Republican-controlled states find themselves hamstrung by laws or executive orders restricting their ability to require vaccines or other public health measures.
“We and some of the other professional organizations have been hearing from our college health professionals and from college administrators, including vice presidents and presidents, that this restrictive legislation is tying the hands of our colleges in providing a safe environment into which students can return this fall,” said Gerri Taylor, co-chair of ACHA’s COVID-19 task force. “It has virtually tied their hands so that they will be unable to put into place the usual public health strategies that we’ve used over many, many years. I can remember many years ago when we had measles on campus and we needed to find out whether students had been immunized. Many schools had outbreaks and many schools then mandated measles vaccines, and we saw the cases drop precipitously.”
ACHA has recommended that colleges mandate all students on campus this fall be vaccinated against COVID-19. “We’re going to see millions of college students going back to school in the next few weeks,” Taylor said. “We’re going to see more cases; there’s no doubt in my mind. The best way to prevent transmission is to have as many people as possible immunized.”
States that have prohibited governmental entities generally from requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccines through laws or executive orders barring so-called vaccine passports include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. (After Indiana passed a law banning vaccine passports, Indiana University amended its vaccine requirement to require students to attest to having received the vaccine, rather than requiring them to provide proof; in a ruling last month, a federal judge upheld the university’s requirement as constitutional.)
Some states have gone further. Florida bars public and private colleges alike from requiring vaccination against COVID-19 as a condition of enrollment or attendance. Oklahoma bars public and private colleges from not only from requiring vaccines but also from requiring mask wearing for individuals who have not been vaccinated.
After Arizona State University announced in June that unvaccinated students would have to wear masks and undergo twice-weekly surveillance testing, Arizona governor Doug Ducey signed an executive order saying that public colleges could not require vaccinations “or place any conditions on attendance or participation in classes or academic activities, including but not limited to mandatory testing and mandatory mask usage, if a person chooses not to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine.”
Texas governor Greg Abbott, who previously signed executive orders barring governmental entities from requiring COVID-19 vaccines or face masks, doubled down on that stance in a new executive order signed last week, two days after the CDC revised its guidance to recommend mask wearing in public for all people regardless of vaccination status in areas of substantial or high community transmission. The order prohibits governmental entities and private entities that receive any state funding from requiring vaccines, and also bars governmental entities from requiring masks, with certain limited exceptions for health-care facilities and jails.
Colleges in some of these states can encourage, but not require, vaccination or mask wearing.