NYU will begin vaccinating students on April 6. The university’s announcement coincides with New York state’s decision to open up COVID-19 vaccines to New York residents aged 16 and older.
“NYU strongly encourages all eligible members to be vaccinated,” Dr. Carlo Ciotoli, Executive Lead of the COVID-19 Prevention & Response Team, wrote in an email sent to the university community. “There will be additional groups offered vaccinations in the following weeks as more vaccine is made available to us.”
In order to get a vaccination through the university, students must fill out the COVID-19 Vaccine Interest & Certification Survey. To be eligible, they must have neither received a dose of the vaccine from another provider nor signed up for an appointment at a different location.
The university will randomly select 1,200 students to receive the first round of vaccines beginning April 6 and expand availability to more groups as additional doses are received from the state. If selected, students have 48 hours to schedule an appointment on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Ciotoli said proof of New York residency is required, such as an NYU ID and dorm sticker for students living in university housing. Those eligible through work or employment status will need to bring proof of employment in New York state.
“If you are not among the first group randomly selected by NYU, by all means please seek out the earliest appointment you can, wherever you can,” Ciotoli wrote. “We currently have a very limited supply of vaccines to offer each week, and at this pace, it will take a long time for NYU to vaccinate its whole community.”
The university was first approved as a vaccination center in January, but had not received vaccine stock until this week. Vaccination sites will now open at the Student Health Center, the first floor of Bobst Library and the MetroTech Center in Brooklyn.
“We have put systems in place to manage appointments and to retain records of people having been vaccinated,” NYU spokesperson John Beckman wrote in a statement to WSN. “Given the troubling high and stubborn rate of new cases in New York City, we do not anticipate opening up additional facilities or amenities. However, we may be able to do so if the population health picture changes.”
According to Beckman, NYU has not yet decided if proof of COVID-19 vaccination will be required for everyone on campus during the upcoming Fall 2021 semester, as WSN previously reported. Other institutions, such as Rutgers and Cornell University, announced they are requiring returning students to be vaccinated.
Liberal Studies first-year Gabriel Murjani hopes NYU will follow other universities’ examples and make receiving the vaccine mandatory to be on campus.
“We’re in this public space in New York, so it would definitely make everything safer and allow us to have the full college experience,” Murjani said. “NYU’s method of distributing vaccines is the best thing it can do at the moment because there are limited resources, and random selection is fair.”
Stern first-year Eric Sun agreed with Murjani, saying that receiving the vaccine should be a requirement for the fall semester. Sun plans on signing up through NYU’s survey to get vaccinated.
“Mandatory vaccinations can guarantee that everyone stays safe, and it would allow us to ease up restrictions and have clubs open as well,” Sun said.
Email Rachel Cohen at [email protected].
