Chambana Sun

The University of Illinois has enacted a policy that requires all students at its three state campuses to be vaccinated against COVID-19 if they plan on being on campus for the upcoming fall semester.

The announcement, which came in the form of a letter from system president Timothy Killeen, stands to make the university the first public university in the state to enact such a policy. Private Illinois institutions, such as Northwestern University, DePaul University and Loyola University, previously announced that students would have to be vaccinated before the start of the fall semester in order to be allowed on campus.

Killeen justified the school’s actions by asserting they are "consistent with our own scientific modeling of the risks associated with the spread of the virus and its variants. It is also consistent with the Illinois Department of Public Health’s goals."

School officials say students who are not vaccinated will need to follow campus-specific guidelines and any exemption protocols outlined by each campus.

The World Health Organization has asked countries with vaccine shortages to suspend vaccinations of children. 

University of Illinois: Springfield interim chancellor Karen Whitney has wasted little time publicly throwing her support behind the plan.

"I think what this directive does is to provide people with clarity about what their university is expecting from them," Whitney told the State-Journal Register. "People want clarity. What I can tell you is the more vaccinated a college campus is, the more students can get the student life they want and, let's be honest, the life they didn't get to have last year. This is about academic success and a quality college student experience."

Whitney added she is hoping the timing of the announcement will allow students that have not yet been vaccinated ample time to do so before they are slated to return to campus. For the most part, a person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after his or her second dose in a two-dose series or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson's.