Middlebury Institute requiring Covid-19 vaccinations for returning students and staff.

The Middlebury Institute for International Studies in Monterey is planning on bringing students and staff back to campus this fall for classes but with a caveat: they must be vaccinated against Covid-19.

"Looking ahead to the fall semester, it is increasingly clear that the Institute's path to resuming more in-person instruction, events, and on-campus work is dependent on increasing the number of people who are vaccinated," MIIS President Laurie Patton and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean Jeff Dayton-Johnson announced on the institute's website.

"Scientific research tells us that vaccination of the vast majority of our community will provide the best possible protection against Covid-19," their statement reads, adding that once most everyone is vaccinated the school will be able to relax restrictions previously enacted on campus.

"For these reasons, we will require all students, faculty, and staff living, learning, or working on campus in the fall to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, except for those with an approved medical or religious exemption," they state, using italics for emphasis.

The MIIS announcement doesn't specify the medical and religious exemptions that would excuse someone from vaccination. It explains administrators are developing a system for students to submit requests. Employees with medical conditions "may require reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act."

Students will have to be vaccinated longer than 14 days before returning to campus and will have to provide proof of vaccination. The announcement states that people should keep the original copy of their vaccination in a safe place and retain a photo of it on their phone or have a photocopy made.

"We have much to look forward to, and we are excited about the prospect of returning to life at the Institute in many of the ways we all miss, while continuing to keep our community safe," Patton and Dayton-Johnson said.

MIIS, a private graduate school, joins other private colleges and universities in the state that are making such a requirement.

The California State University system announced last month it would require vaccinations for the fall but with a caveat, that at least one or more of the vaccines must have received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration. (Currently the vaccines have an emergency use authorization.)

It's unclear that full approval will happen by fall, which could mean campuses like CSU Monterey Bay would not be able to require vaccination. That campus is currently planning about a 50 percent return to in-person instruction.

The California Community Colleges are leaving the decision up to each district, Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley announced on April 22. Hartnell College in Salinas, which is planning to return to 50 percent in-person instruction, only states in a May 6 status report on the website that the school "strongly encourages" students and staff to be vaccinated. A spokesperson says the Hartnell Board of Trustees has looked at information about requiring vaccinations but has not taken a position.

There is no word yet on what Monterey Peninsula College's position will be. The Monterey campus is expected to return to about 40 percent in-person instruction.