Utica College explores mandatory vaccines for students

Utica, New York – Before students can officially become a Utica Pioneer, they will be required to be fully vaccinated.

“We’re putting hundreds of students in very tight accommodations in our residence halls. We’re putting our normal capacity classrooms back together, the vaccine is the best defense. ” – Shad Crowe, VP of Emergency Management at Utica College

According to Crowe, students will be required to submit their vaccination records to the student health center. Faculty and staff will be required to submit their records to Human Resources.

“If they have one shot or they tell us they intend to get it but having difficulty, we do everything in our power to help them find that vaccine. If they’re here with one shot we help them get their second shot. Now of course until they’re fully vaccinated they have to be masked. We’ll be paying very close attention to those people.”

Exemptions will be accepted for medical and religious reasons and those individuals will be required to wear a mask.

“We’ll track all visitors, any visitors that come to campus unless they provide us proof of vaccination voluntarily, and they’ll be required to wear a mask. We’ll restrict their movements on campus if we need to.”

Spectators will be allowed at all sporting events, “We intend to have a fully vibrant return to fall sports here at Utica College. We’re very excited about that, I think we all are, everybody around here is.”