California State University, Chico says more than 90% of its students are vaccinated against COVID-19.
Students were required to get the shot by the end of September or risk being removed from in-person classes.
Mike Guzzi is Chico State’s director of emergency operations. He says 98% of the school’s roughly 15,500 students are either vaccinated against COVID-19 or received medical or religious exemptions. The exemption pool totaled about 700 students.
“That was a huge win for us,” Guzzi said. “And as a comparison, I saw in the recent higher ed chronicles (The Chronicle of Higher Education) that New Mexico State had the exact same goals – the exact same parameters as us – but they only had 30% of their students certify by September 30.”
About 115 students hadn’t certified their vaccination status or hadn’t received an exemption as of last Friday (Oct. 8). Guzzi says they’ve been pulled from their classes on campus but can still attend online courses.
He says students who don’t act also won’t be able to enroll in in-person classes when registration opens for the spring semester.