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Should colleges require vaccines?

Newswatch 16's Elizabeth Worthington visited one university in Columbia County to hear students' thoughts and find out what the plan is there.

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — Some factors students take into account when considering what college to attend include location, price, prestige—and now possibly, whether or not the school requires you to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

"For a school like Rutgers, who already has it as a requirement, and say Bloomsburg didn't, will seniors in high school be like, 'Oh, well, Rutgers is requiring it, and Bloomsburg isn't,' and maybe choose Bloomsburg because they're questioning what might happen?" wondered Bloomsburg senior Eden Berlin.

RELATED: Rutgers University to require students be vaccinated for COVID-19

That includes high school senior Christian Mapes. He plans to attend Bloomsburg University in the fall and spent the day touring campus.

"I would get it if I have to, but I'm not too fond of the whole vaccine thing yet anyway because it's too new, and we don't really know the long-term effects of it," Mapes said.

A big factor that will likely play a role in which colleges choose to mandate the vaccine is whether the school is private or owned by the state.

"At this point, we will not be able to do that because the state legislature has not given us the authority to do so. It's not that we're prohibited; we're just not authorized," said Bloomsburg University's Tom McGuire.

Bloomsburg is one of the 14 state-owned universities in Pennsylvania that currently has no plans to mandate the vaccine.

Bucknell University in Lewisburg is a private school. The vaccine won't be required there either.

The University of Scranton, also private, has not made a decision either way yet.

"I think it should be mandatory if you have to travel, but as far as just being on campus, I don't think everybody should have to take it. It's like your own choice, you know? You shouldn't be forced to have to take a vaccine that you don't want to take," said Josiah McCoy, a Bloomsburg freshman.

"I feel like if a lot of people were forced to get it, then they would end up probably just trying not to go to college because a lot of people are heavily against it. And there's a lot of people that are heavily for it. And education is, I think, more important than getting a vaccine," Mapes added.

So far, no school in Pennsylvania has announced it will require students to get the shot to be on campus.

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