NJ colleges mandated COVID vaccines. Students complied – mostly – NorthJersey.com

New Jersey higher education institutions have had resounding success in enforcing a student COVID-19 vaccine mandate — with some harsh penalties imposed on students who do not comply.

At Rutgers University, 98% of its 71,000 students were vaccinated against COVID-19, a spokesperson confirmed two weeks before the school reopened for full-time in-person instruction on Sept 1.

Of Montclair State University’s 18,800 students, 92.5% of them were vaccinated as of Sept 8, with 6.8% exempted for medical or religious reasons, a spokesperson for the university said.

Princeton University had similar success, with 98% of its students vaccinated according to the university’s online COVID-19 dashboard on Sept 15.

The universities imposed barriers to students who did not follow the vaccine requirements.

Montclair State disenrolled 140 students for not complying. No students have been disenrolled from Rutgers for not complying with the mandate, a university spokesperson said. 

Rutgers University students who do not comply are prevented from accessing their university accounts with an ‘action required’ message reminding them to upload their vaccination proof.

All three universities are also mandating their faculty and staff be vaccinated.

A federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Rutgers’ students-only vaccine mandate was filed in August with the Children’s Health Defense as lead plaintiff alongside a group of enrolled Rutgers students.

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Julio Gomez, the attorney representing the students anddefense group said one of the students in the lawsuit, his niece Adriana Pinto, has filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against the university because it is requiring her to get vaccinated, even though she has signed a sworn statement saying she will not enter the campuses. Her university account was frozen on Aug. 26.

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Pinto has only registered to take one remote class this semester. Rutgers policy exempts students from the vaccination requirement only if they are enrolled in fully online degree-granting programs, or participating in fully online or off-campus Continuing Education programs, said a spokesperson.

Gomez said the university filed papers in response to Pinto’s motion for a restraining order yesterday and the court is expected to make its decision shortly.

Montclair State University spokesperson said no lawsuits have been filed by students in response to the vaccine mandate.

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Pinto is a life-long member of Children’s Health Defense, a group that focuses on the harmfulness of vaccines, according to the legal complaint. She does not want to take the vaccine because she contracted and recovered from COVID. According to the legal complaint, Pinto believes she has stronger immunity than a vaccine could provide.

A Rutgers spokesperson said the university’s position on vaccines is consistent with the legal authority supporting the policy and that the university has updated its existing immunization requirements for students to include the COVID-19 vaccine.

Meanwhile, all three universities have developed plans to isolate confirmed cases of COVID using contact tracers to notify individuals who may have to quarantine.

Princeton University had 37 students in isolation on Sept. 3 after it reopened on Aug 29. That number dropped to 25 on Sept 10. Students who have been exposed to the virus are required to quarantine, and those who test positive are placed in ‘isolation dorms’.

Rutgers University does not provide a public portal with updated COVID numbers on its website. It offers a dashboard showing results of weekly testing of unvaccinated individuals. Food is not permitted in classrooms or in libraries while COVID protocols are in place, according to a return-to-campus guide released on Aug 30, just before the campuses reopened.

Bergen County Community College in Paramus did not mandate vaccines for students but piloted a vaccine-tracking program in the summer, which entered students into a lottery for $1,000 tuition incentives if they uploaded proof of vaccination. The program was available only to students enrolled in the fall. Staff and faculty are, however, mandated to take the vaccine by Oct. 18, in line with the state’s requirement that all public employees be vaccinated or submit to regular testing.

Bergen County Community College spokesperson Larry Havlenka said the school implemented the policy independently after soliciting feedback from faculty and labor representatives on campus. The state mandate does not apply to community colleges.

Other state colleges and universities to mandate vaccines are: New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, The College of New Jersey in Ewing, Stockton University in Galloway, Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, Drew University in Madison, Rider University in Lawrenceville, Rowan University in Glassboro, Kean University in Union, Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison and Teaneck, Georgian Court University in Lakewood, Caldwell University in Caldwell, Essex County College in Newark, Monmouth University in West Long Branch, Mount St. Mary University, Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah and William Paterson University in Wayne. 

In New Jersey, 5.6 million or 63% residents have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The latest figures show 977,517 total COVID-19 cases with 24,356 deaths. The latest rate of transmission as of Wednesday was 1.01.

Mary Ann Koruth covers education for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news about New Jersey’s schools and how it affects your children, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: koruthm@northjersey.com

Twitter: @MaryAnnKoruth