New York to Require University Students to Show Vaccination Proof

Students attending universities in New York will not be able to continue classes unless they get vaccinated against COVID-19.
New York to Require University Students to Show Vaccination Proof
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference in New York, on May 10, 2021. (Mary Altaffer/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Lorenz Duchamps
5/11/2021
Updated:
5/11/2021

Students attending universities in New York won’t be able to continue classes unless they get vaccinated against COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus.

The announcement was made by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo during a press briefing on Monday. The governor explained State University of New York (SUNY) and City University of New York (CUNY) will require CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccination proof for students returning this fall.

“So, today, no excuses. SUNY and CUNY boards will require vaccinations for all in-person students coming back to school in the fall,” the Democratic governor said. “You’re a young person. You go to a SUNY school, State University of New York, City University of New York, you must have a vaccine to come back in September.”

The requirement will only be mandated in public universities, though Cuomo also encouraged private schools to follow suit.

“I also encourage private schools to do the same thing,” he said. “Let’s make a global statement. You cannot go back to school in person in September unless you have a vaccine.”

The requirement will affect more than 435,000 full-time students and comes as Cuomo and other officials are offering a slew of incentives aimed at New Yorkers to get inoculated as they see the demand for vaccines declining.

Besides the university vaccination mandate, Cuomo also said subway riders will get free seven-day passes to the system for getting the vaccine at station sites that will dispense Johnson & Johnson, which will be starting on Wednesday.

“You are walking into the subway station anyway. You are walking past the vaccination site. It’s a one-shot vaccination. Stop, take a few minutes, get the vaccine,” he said.

New York joins several institutions throughout the nation that are requiring students to show vaccination proof before returning to class, while other government officials have decided to ban such documents in their state.

Florida and Texas became the largest states in the nation that approved a bill banning so-called vaccine passports, credentials that could take the form of an app, or a physical document that indicates whether someone has been inoculated against the CCP virus.
Other states who prohibited the use of such documents include Wyoming, Montana, and Arizona, saying residents’ vaccination choices are private matters. Legislatures in Indiana and Iowa have recently passed bills seeking to block them. Similar measures are being proposed in Michigan, Tennessee, New Jersey, and New Hampshire.

Several other countries outside the United States, including Israel and Iceland, have mandated vaccine passports for certain activities.

Reuters contributed to this report.