Across the country, a growing number of colleges and universities have said\u00a0vaccinations will be mandatory for the fall of 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, hundreds of thousands of students will be required to get the\u00a0Covid-19 vaccine<\/a>, whether they want to or not.<\/p>\n For the most part, students will get vaccinated if it means campus life can return to a pre-pandemic \u201cnormal\u201d by September. But not everyone feels that way.<\/p>\n Roughly 88% of college students plan to get the\u00a0coronavirus<\/a>\u00a0vaccine and nearly 3 in 4 students believe vaccinations should be mandatory, according to a recent survey of more than\u00a01,000 college students<\/a>\u00a0by College Finance.<\/p>\n However, Jackie Gale, a rising sophomore at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, is not one of them.<\/p>\n For religious reasons, Gale has never been vaccinated. The 19-year-old attended Alabama public schools and received a religious exemption from the Alabama state health department.<\/p>\n The University of Alabama-Birmingham also exempted Gale from its vaccine requirements during the 2020-2021 school year but won\u2019t apply the same exemption for the upcoming year, according to her lawyer.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they decide to give her a religious exemption, that will be the end of it,\u201d said Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel for First Liberty Institute, based outside of Dallas. \u201cIf not, we will have to communicate with them through a lawsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn compliance with applicable law,\u00a0we do provide religious exemptions\u00a0for immunization requirements,\u201d a spokeswoman for the school said. The university does require students provide proof of immunization against certain diseases, although there is currently no Covid vaccine mandate for the fall semester.<\/p>\n For those enrolled in school, there are many vaccination requirements already in place to prevent the spread of diseases such as polio,\u00a0diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.<\/p>\n All 50 states have at least some\u00a0vaccine mandates<\/a>\u00a0for students attending public schools and even those attending private schools. In every case, there are medical exemptions and, in some instances, there are religious or philosophical exemptions, as well.<\/p>\n Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, said it will now mandate Covid vaccinations for its 71,000 students.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAdding Covid-19 vaccination to our student immunization requirements will help provide a safer and more robust college experience for our students,\u201d Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are committed to creating a safe campus environment in fall 2021, and to support the health and safety for all members of the Rutgers community, the university has updated existing immunization requirements for students to include the Covid-19 vaccine,\u201d a spokesman for the university added.<\/p>\n