213 University of Maine System students miss vaccine deadline, banned from campus
PORTLAND (WGME) – Hundreds of University of Maine System students missed the deadline to show proof of vaccination.
Maine university system will kick out 200 students who refused COVID shot or exemption
The school system is now unenrolling them and banning them from campus and in-person learning.
Students at the USM campus in Gorham say it’s a tough situation, but they feel safer knowing unvaccinated students aren’t allowed on campus.
“It’s part of the sacrifice to go to school,” sophomore Elaina Balzano said.
At first, she was hesitant to get vaccinated.
“But when the vaccine started to come in with walk-in appointments, that’s when I went right in," Balzano said. "I was like, 'You know what, do it, it helps a lot.'”
Not every student felt the same as Balzano.
The UMaine System chancellor says 213 out of more than 20,000 students did not get the vaccine by the school system’s October 15 deadline.
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“So, we’re talking about a very tiny number of people,”UMaine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy said.
Malloy says about half of those students withdrew from classes on their own at the start of the semester. The rest will be unenrolled.
“I think it’s pretty crazy,” USM freshman Jazlyn Locarno said. “It’s kind of sad they didn’t get vaccinated.”
The chancellor says he thinks it’s a difficult punishment.
“One we would hope that we would not have to do,” Malloy said.
Malloy says more than 1,400 students got a medical or religious exemption.
Now the school system is reaching out to each unvaccinated student before they’re unenrolled.
“We don’t want to send anyone away,” Malloy said. “We want people to be protected from COVID.”
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“It’s going to make a very big difference, especially in this small state,” Balzano said.
Malloy says they should be finished withdrawing unvaccinated students by the end of this week.