Students, faculty and staff wanting to participate in upcoming semesters must now be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 at Worcester schools the College of the Holy Cross, Clark University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
The three join Anna Maria College in Paxton, each of the state s public university campuses, including Fitchburg, Framingham and Worcester state universities, and MCPHS University, which has a campus in downtown Worcester. Community colleges, including Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner and Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester have said they won t require vaccines, not wanting to worsen potential health inequities among members of its campuses.
Clark President David Fithian made the announcement of the vaccine requirement on Thursday in a letter to the campus community, saying everyone had to show their proof of vaccination by July 15.
Fitchburg, Framingham, Worcester State and their counterparts statewide will require students to receive COVID-19 vaccines this fall, they said in a joint announcement Friday.
Those colleges join others in Massachusetts including Assumption University in Worcester and Northeastern University in Boston to announce requirements before students are able to attend in-person courses or live in residence halls. The Massachusetts State University Council of Presidents said it expects employees to be fully vaccinated before the start of the fall semester.
“Student safety and the safety of our communities remains at the forefront of our planning as we prepare to return to in-person learning and campus life in the fall, James Birge, the president of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in Boston and chair of the state university presidents group, said in a statement.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute will take over the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute after Becker College, MassDiGI s host, closes following the end of the spring semester.
WPI previously offered to host the video game center when Becker announced in late March it would close its doors because of financial difficulties. That was made official in an announcement at the center on Monday.
Timothy Loew, the MassDiGI founder and executive director, called the institute and WPI a perfect match. Like Becker, WPI, located only a few blocks away, has an internationally renown video game design program, which started in 2004 as one of the first such undergraduate degree programs in game design.
The 15 community college presidents comprising the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges issued a statement on Thursday urging their students and staff to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.