Towson Requiring COVID-19 Vaccination To Return To Campus

TOWSON, MD — Students, faculty and staff at Towson University must be vaccinated against COVID-19 to return to campus this fall, according to the University System of Maryland, which announced Friday it was requiring vaccination for all of its campuses.

"The requirement of the vaccine for our students, faculty and staff is yet another layer of protection against the introduction and/or spread of the virus that causes COVID-19," Towson University President Kim Schatzel said in a statement Friday, April 23. "Now, more than ever, we have an opportunity to be leaders for the public good. We have an opportunity to show how Tigers Care."

Anyone in Maryland older than 16 can get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Towson University officials encouraged those who want to return to campus to register for an appointment with the Baltimore County Health Department or local health department immediately.

People can also visit the state's mass vaccination registration website.

Towson is among more than a dozen University System of Maryland campuses, all of which will be requiring COVID-19 vaccination of eligible students and staff this staff.

"The risk of doing too little to contain COVID on campus this fall is far greater than the risk of doing too much," Chancellor Jay A. Perman said in a meeting Friday morning before the Board of Regents and University System of Maryland presidents. "For this reason, I’m requiring that all eligible students, faculty, and staff who will be on our Maryland campuses this fall be vaccinated against COVID."

The requirement will apply to "students, faculty and staff regularly on campus — including those teaching a class or taking a class on campus — prior to the start of the fall semester," Perman said.

"Of course, we’ll comply with all federal and state laws in granting appropriate exemptions for medical or religious reasons," Perman said, noting there would be "a lot of questions" about exceptions, which would be addressed in communication with students, faculty and staff.

"To those who might ask, 'Why now? Why not wait several weeks, a few more months, until we know even more?'" Perman said. "Our students, their parents, our faculty and staff: They’re asking me now whether the campuses they’re coming back to this fall — the campuses their children are coming back to this fall — will be safe. They’re making their decisions now based on whether they can have confidence in the fact that we’ll do everything we can to protect them. I need to give them an answer and, to me, it’s hard to imagine that answer being anything other than, 'Yes, we’ll use everything we have in this fight against COVID.'"