The system’s office of human resources and labor relations determined it will “no longer require students to be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus,” according to the California Faculty Association, a union representing 29,000 CSU faculty members.
The system has more than 450,000 students enrolled among 23 campuses.
“A revised draft of the policy is currently in the ‘meet and confer’ state with various CSU labor groups,” said CSU spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith, in an email to The Epoch Times March 23.
The college’s plan to cancel its mandate follows California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement Feb. 28 ending the state’s COVID-19 State of Emergency.
The push for colleges to require coronavirus vaccines began in 2021 at Cornell and Duke, both private universities, spurring other schools to enact similar policies, with more than 1,000 colleges mandating vaccination, as of Sept. 2022.
The University of California (UC) and CSU implemented similar vaccine mandates for the fall 2021 semester in a joint announcement, and both currently require a booster shot to be compliant.
A request for comment from UC regarding if it will follow suit was not returned on deadline.
The controversial mandate was immediately met with a series of protests on some campuses, including Cal State Fullerton, and three Chico State students filed a federal lawsuit June 25, 2021 against the policy.
Since the mandates were imposed, questions about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines have increased. In response to peer-reviewed studies and criticism from constituents, 21 states have now banned coronavirus vaccine mandates in public schools and universities.
Meanwhile, CSU is struggling with enrollment declines and potential budget deficits for some campuses if target numbers are not met.
During a Board of Trustees meeting in January, the executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer, Steve Relyea, alluded to the enrollment predicament by saying, “The California State University is facing an unprecedented moment in its 62-year history.”
According to the university, 34,130 fewer full-time students enrolled in fall 2022 as compared to fall 2020, and the headcount was down by 27,558.
These numbers indicate some students chose to take fewer classes, while others made the decision to drop their studies altogether.
According to a CSU report from January, enrollment declines have continued for the 2022–23 school year.
The number of transfer students coming into the Cal State system, traditionally a strong source of enrollment, has dropped by 11,000 annually since the pandemic restrictions began.
The report attributes some of these losses to the decline in community college attendance across the state, but noted, first-year enrollments at CSU rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in fall 2022.
Newsom was an advocate for permanent vaccine requirements in public schools. California’s mandate was the first in the nation to require coronavirus vaccines for middle and high schoolers, and there was a push to include kindergarten through elementary grades, but the state Supreme Court ruled in February that school districts cannot dictate such policy, as only the state government has the power to issue mandates.
Colleges and private schools are exempt from this decision because tuition is required to attend, leaving students subject to the rules of the institution.
While the CSU’s faculty association wrote that the university intends to explain its decision to rescind the vaccine order in letters directed to individual campuses, no official announcement has been issued from the Chancellor’s office.
“As it stands now, the policy has not changed,” said Bentley-Smith, the CSU spokesperson.
