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Peyton Gonzales
Dr. Boudreau
ENG-112-10CA
21 June 2021
Should Colleges Mandate the COVID-19 Vaccine for Students?
A year after the first reported case of COVID-19, the FDA issued the first Emergency
Authorization for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. After that, the FDA approved two more
vaccines, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson. First responders, doctors, nurses, and other front-
line workers helping to fight COVID-19 were the first people eligible to receive the COVID-19
vaccine. Now everyone over the age of 12 is eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Even
though the vaccine is available to the general population, it is not mandatory for anyone to
receive it. However, there is a circumstance where the vaccine should be mandated.
This circumstance is universities. Universities should mandate their students to receive
the COVID-19 vaccine before they are allowed to return to campus for the fall 2021 semester.
By doing this they would be helping to guarantee the safety if their students, faculty, and staff. It
would also allow for college campuses to return to normal quicker. Overall, by mandating
students to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the college is putting the well being of its people first.
In March 2020, universities were forced to shut down and send their students home due
to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Students were forced to finish their semester online from
home. Universities finally opened back up for the fall 2020 semester, but it did not look the same
when they did. Universities opened up with a bunch of restrictions in place. For example, classes
were still not fully in person, dining halls were closed for dine in, there were restrictions on the
number of people that could gather, campus events were canceled, sports were canceled, etc.
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Universities also spent a sizable amount of money on quarantine dorms and quarantine meals for
those living on campus who had tested positive for COVID-19.
Like mentioned before, even though students were living on campus again, classes were
still not fully in person. Some classes were in hybrid format, meaning that half of the time the
student was going to class in person and the other half they were attending online. Others were
still fully through zoom or completely online. This type of learning made it difficult for students
to be successful in their classes. According to a survey conducted through Langer Research
Associates:
“Students were asked to describe their greatest challenge in learning from their course
after it moved online. Many responses to this open-ended question focused on staying
