Any Oakland University student living in on-campus housing this fall will need to be get the COVID-19 vaccine before fall move-in in August. Students can get an exception for a religious or medical reason.
Bob Murphy is the chief policy officer at the Michigan Association of State Universities. He says although Oakland may be the first state university to have some sort of vaccine mandate, it won't be the last.
"We’ve all been considering this for a long time about what is the best way to have a fall semester that is as normal and as safe as possible, and so obviously immunization is a big part of that."
He says many college students and parents in Michigan approve of some sort of vaccine mandate on campus.
"By far, a large majority of students already plan on getting the vaccination as soon as it’s available to them, so I think it’s going to be more of a question of just getting availability to the students," he says.
Oakland University says it has more than 5,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson will all be available) that it hopes to distribute to faculty, staff, and students before the end of the spring semester.
