CSU’s vaccination deadlines vary.

Some schools will start while students wait for inoculations to take full effect

California State University’s recent COVID-19 vaccine mandate leaves a lot of decisions up to each of its 23 campuses — so much so that at some, students could be unvaccinated and remain on campus a month or more into the fall term.

The language of the interim mandate, made public July 27 and spelled out formally July 29, sounds black and white: If students want to attend classes in person or visit campus at all, they’ll have to be vaccinated or face possible academic and disciplinary consequences.

But the deadline — Sept. 30 or sooner — comes long after most campuses start their fall terms, which is middle or late August.

Cal State East Bay is requiring students to be fully vaccinated on Sept. 15. Meanwhile, fall term begins Aug. 18 — leaving nearly a month of unvaccinated students potentially commingling with students and staff. There are other safeguards. Everyone visiting the campus will have to wear masks when indoors following county orders in response to rising COVID-19 caseloads. And students who aren’t vaccinated will undergo weekly testing in that first month.

“I didn’t really consider the time gap between the 15th and then the start of school,” said Cal State East Bay rising senior Kabir Dhillon, who’s also the student body vice president. “It just makes me feel … a little bit worried, not gonna lie.”

Cal State East Bay is among more than a dozen campuses with a substantial gap be

tween the start of the fall

term and when students must be fully vaccinated. Many of those campuses will require masks and social distancing. Others will provide regular testing until the deadline strikes.

San Diego State isn’t waiting. Its deadline for full vaccination is today, a week before classes start. By late July more than 25,000 students had verified they were vaccinated; last fall the university enrolled around 35,000 students. Humboldt State’s deadline is Sept. 10, which is the end of the first week of face-to-face classes. Up until that point, all classes will be held virtually — and 40% of classes will remain fully online for the term. Some other campuses say students have to have one shot completed by late August, at least.

The vaccine requirement is a course reversal for the CSU, which previously maintained that it would enforce a mandate only after the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention formally approves one of the three vaccines in the U.S. currently authorized under emergency-use orders. But unlike the University of California, which made clear in June it would require inoculation before the CDC formally approves the vaccines and formalized that decision July 15, the CSU waited longer, informing the public of its plans only three weeks before the start of fall semester.

Most UCs begin classes in late September because they’re on the quarter system. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is the only CSU campus that starts classes in September.

“Obviously, if the CSU system had changed policies to require vaccines under (emergency use) at the same time the UC system did, there would have been more time for students, faculty and staff to get vaccinated by the start of the semester,” said Cal State East Bay public health professor Andrew Kelly.

Another public health professor echoed the concern. “Allowing students to be unvaccinated until Sept. 30 will certainly be a problem,” said Stanley Salinas at Chico State. “Requiring masking on campus is a fine start, but students spend the majority of their time off campus, and a mask in a backpack is far less effective than a vaccine administered.”

On the flip side, Sept. 30 isn’t that far away, and for some students, the timeline to get a vaccine may be tight.

If students procrastinate, “that is an issue,” said Krystal Raynes of CSU Bakersfield, one of the two students on the CSU Board of Trustees that oversees the whole system.

Campuses have been active in getting the word out through emails to students and posts on Twitter and Instagram, as well as messages on student portals.

Students have a strong incentive to abide by the vaccine mandates if they intend to take courses in person. Almost all CSU campuses say students will be barred from university classrooms and facilities if they don’t comply, unless they have an approved medical or religious exemption. Students may face disciplinary action, including suspension. Students with valid exemptions must undergo regular testing.

Humboldt State said a student taking in-person classes who refuses to be vaccinated will be blocked from school access and that their missed labs and classes “will not be forgiven.”

Several colleges said not all of their in-person classes will also be available online. Students at San Francisco State not meeting the verification deadline will be dropped from their inperson courses. It’s on them to find the online courses they’ll need, said a campus spokesperson.

And though the consequences for ignoring the requirement are mostly clear for students, they’re not for unionized faculty. That’s because collective bargaining rules require that the CSU and labor unions confer on employee disciplinary action. Those negotiations are still ongoing, said a CSU spokesperson.