After three semesters of seemingly endless insanity, college campuses are only just returning to some semblance of normalcy. The vaccine rollout has certainly changed the outlook on things, but to what extent will schools go to protect their students outside of this? And what is truly motivating this mandate? 

In an Aug. 24 email from SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley, students were notified of the change to SUNY’s COVID-19 vaccination policy. The email stated that in order to comply with the policy, all students who occupy a “physical presence” on campus must complete a full vaccination series prior to Monday, Sept. 27. Roughly translated, any student planning on attending class or participating in clubs or organizations on campus in any capacity must be fully vaccinated by that date. 

For a full vaccination series to be completed, students must receive the two dose Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or the one dose Johnson&Johnson vaccine. A few exemptions to the vaccine mandate may be granted for those with medical or religious reasons, but it will impact the majority of SUNY students across the 64 school system. 

While I am a firm believer that the vaccine is the best option for the health and safety of everyone, it is frustrating to think about the motivations that come along with the mandate.

I was used to seeing a plan in place. For a year, the Oswego Forward plan was a reference for clubs and organizations as well as classrooms to keep everyone as safe as possible. Now, there is no plan. It is nearly impossible to access any information regarding campus policies and safety through the SUNY Oswego website aside from the five FAQs listed under Oswego Forward. If we are meant to believe that the vaccine requirement will erase the possibility of a COVID-19 spread, we are being horribly duped. 

As a full-time student with a majority of in-person classes, I was ecstatic to return to the classroom. Everyone was to be fully masked and students living on campus were required to be vaccinated. Yet how is this possible to enforce?

Aside from little to no information being provided regarding COVID-19 campus policies and procedures, the dashboard of cases has been consolidated as SUNY-wide, which offers less information than before and nothing on vaccine numbers. If safety was the number one priority, there would be more information available.

It is disheartening to think that the vaccine mandate was not in the interest of students but the lack of information and policies point towards that.

The question now is not to what extent schools will go to in order to protect their students, but if they will even try.

Photo from Flickr