The University of New Mexico is disenrolling 256 students for failing to comply with its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Most of the students, 164 of them, were enrolled on the university’s main campus in Albuquerque. Students had until Friday to comply with the vaccine mandate.
The students being disenrolled did not take any action to comply with the university’s requirement by the deadline, university spokeswoman Cinnamon Blair told the news agency.
“Students facing disenrollment have been receiving daily messages for over a month and, prior to that, biweekly messages,” she said. “We have also conducted phone and text campaigns from Enrollment Management and our resource centers, as well as from branches, to contact these students.”
Students must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or get an approved medical or religious exemption. Students also have the option of taking only online classes under the policy. Exempted students who attend classes on-campus are required to submit to weekly COVID-19 tests to the UNM vaccine verification site.
Students who live on campus but have not gotten vaccinated or received an exemption are allowed to remain for the rest of the fall semester only if they submit to weekly COVID-19 testing.
UNM’s online vaccination site shows 92.2% of students on the Albuquerque campus and 91.8% of students throughout the university system are vaccinated, the Albuquerque Journal reported. University staff and faculty are also required to be vaccinated or receive an approved exemption and undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.
More than 1,000 colleges and universities throughout the U.S. require a COVID-19 vaccine for their residential students, according to Best Colleges.
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