DePaul among first Illinois colleges to mandate Covid-19 vaccine for returning students Sonal Soni, Assistant News Editor|April 21, 2021 DePaul President A. Gabriel Esteban announced Wednesday in a campus-wide email that Covid-19 vaccines will be required for students returning to campus this fall term. Prior to this announcement, DePaul was not requiring students to be vaccinated before returning to campus this fall. DePaul Health Sciences professor and member of the school’s Covid-19 task force, Craig Klugman, told The DePaulia that there were obstacles preventing DePaul from mandating its students receive the Covid-19 vaccine. Klugman previously said that the school could not require students to be vaccinated before returning to campus unless the Covid-19 vaccines were FDA approved. Currently, the Covid-19 vaccines in use have been granted emergency authorization by the FDA; however, they are not fully authorized. Esteban’s announcement reversed this stance.