Rutgers University to disenroll students who don't comply with COVID vaccine mandate

Rutgers University has said that it will disenroll students who do not adhere to the school's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the upcoming school year. The policy is set to take effect on August 15, 2023.

However, Rutgers has gone back and forth on its COVID policies over the past two years. The Brownstone Institute reported that on March 25, 2021, Rutgers became the first university in the country to announce it would require students to get the COVID vaccine ahead of the fall 2021 school year. But this policy was instituted only after the school retracted a prior statement earlier that year, which said, "With our stance of human liberties and our history of protecting that, the vaccine is not mandatory."

Rutgers, even now, continues to claim that it has a "commitment to health and safety for all members of its community," even though Rochelle Walensky issued a press release on July 30, 2021, that the COVID vaccines do not prevent contracting the illness.

Despite the press release, Rutgers announced in January 2022 a booster mandate that students had to abide by before January 31. This left currently enrolled students little choice but to go along with the mandate in order to stay enrolled.

Of the 2,679 four-year colleges and universities across the country, Rutgers remains one of the fewer than 100 universities that will not let go of COVID vaccine mandates.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul post on X (formerly Twitter): "Requiring 3 COVID vax for college freshman is not just bad science but malpractice. Risk of myocarditis is 28x higher in young men w/COVID vaccine than the risk of myocarditis from COVID. Germany released stats - no healthy young people died from Covid."

In 2020 and 2021, Rutgers had some of the strictest pandemic and lockdown protocols, even after other colleges and universities had found ways to work around the pandemic.

Children's Health Defense reported students quickly fell in line with the protocols, fearing that they would be "denounced as an anti-science MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporter and a grandma killer."

One former student described her experience as caught in a whirlwind of fear, social pressure, and partisanship. As a result, she decided to self-censor rather than risk relationships or lose good standing in her community.

Aside from the students, faculty and staff were also compelled to get the COVID vaccine. Federal Executive Order 14042, signed on September 9, 2021, required all employees of federally contracted institutions, including universities, to be vaccinated against the illness.

Children's Health Defense noted some employees, all of whom received vaccinations, reported that they received threatening notices to fall in line with the booster mandate. The notices apparently stated that "if you fail to comply with the Executive Order and the University's requirements, you will be subject to discipline, up to and including termination of employment, but namely termination."

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