Daniel J. Munoz//May 7, 2021//
Rowan University in South Jersey is the latest New Jersey college requiring students to get the COVID-19 vaccine in order to return to campus this fall, and it is offering an incentive too.
Any student who gets the vaccine and shows proof before Aug. 7 will receive a $500 credit toward their tuition bill and another $500 toward their housing bill. Part-time students will get paid depending on the number of credits they’re currently taking.
On-campus students who do not get the vaccine will need to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing, the university added in the May 6 announcement.
“Our message today is simple. We believe the path to normalcy is through widespread vaccination and we want our entire community to commit to reaching the goal of widespread vaccination,” Rowan President Ali Houshmand said in the university-wide announcement.
The New Jersey Institute of Technology, Stockton, Princeton, Rutgers, Montclair State University, Stevens Institute of Technology and Fairleigh Dickinson University are requiring students to get vaccinated if they want to return to campus this fall, while the New Jersey Performing Arts Center will require patrons to show proof that they’ve been vaccinated or tested negative for COVID-19 in the past three days.
The Murphy administration is aiming to fully vaccinate 4.7 million adults by June 30, and the state is nearing 3.5 million people fully vaccinated and 7 million total shots in arms. Most of the delivered shots are from the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, and a small percentage from the one-shot Johnson & Johnson inoculation.
But because of the limited J&J presence and the two-dose requirement for Pfizer and Moderna, spaced roughly a month apart, Murphy admitted on May 5 that “end of May, early June” is when the state will really know if it’s met its herd immunity goal.
State health officials contend that threshold is key to building widespread herd immunity that could curtail the spread of the virus, and in turn, lead to lifting COVID-19 business restrictions en masse.
But interest in getting the vaccine has lagged recently, despite increasingly abundant dosage supply, and state officials are ramping up their efforts to reach that remaining 1.7 million New Jerseyans.
In response, the Murphy administration has rolled out an aggressive marketing campaign, which includes free beer as 34 select breweries for anyone over the age of 21 who gets their first shot this May.
Called “Operation Jersey Summer,” the campaign launched on May 3 to reach the arms of remaining adults who have been hesitant to get the vaccine. It includes more walk-in appointments, a 30-second video contest, automated goals and email messages, and field campaigns.