Two Catholic colleges are among at least 15 schools of higher education in the United States that still require the coronavirus vaccine, according to a group that tracks such mandates.

The two are the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit school; and Mount Saint Mary’s University Los Angeles, a women’s liberal arts school sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.

Their vaccine mandates lead to a question about what the schools will do now that President Donald Trump is threatening to cut off federal funds to any “institution of higher education that requires students to have received a COVID-19 vaccination to attend any in-person education program,” according to an executive order he issued Feb. 15.

Their options are to go without federal funding, challenge the executive order in court or drop the mandates.

Spokesmen for both universities did not respond to requests for comment by the Register this week. But the University of San Francisco describes the vaccine mandate as promoting health on campus.

“We are dedicated to ensuring the safety of our students and staff/faculty as we navigate COVID-19 on our USF campus,” the University of San Francisco says on its website.

Lucia Sinatra, co-founder of No College Mandates, which opposes COVID-19 vaccine mandates and tracks them at colleges, told the Register she has talked with officials at both schools within the last two months, and the message she received was that the vaccination requirements are permanent.

“They were not planning on dropping those requirements for 2025 or beyond,” Sinatra said.

She said she has not talked with officials at the two schools since Trump signed the executive order this past weekend.

 

Catholic Colleges Split on Vaccine Mandates

Sinatra told the Register she started No College Mandates during the pandemic because she opposed the requirements many colleges implemented in 2021 concerning a vaccine she considered unproven.

“Because of the nature of these vaccines, from Day One it should have always been a choice, never should have been a mandate,” Sinatra said. “The fact that it continues four years later, after we’ve learned so much and know so much, is slightly more infuriating than it was four years ago. … I was frustrated then. I’m frustrated now.”

Her organization keeps track of 1,212 four-year colleges and universities in the United States, which is not the total number of such schools, but a selection based largely on U.S. News & World Report rankings.

Of those, 142 are Catholic colleges. (That’s about 70% of the 204 Catholic four-year colleges in the United States identified by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.)

Of those 142 Catholic colleges, 45 never implemented a coronavirus vaccine mandate, while 97 did.

But those mandates have been decreasing for the past three years.

“It was sort of a slow trickle starting early 2022,” Sinatra said. “By 2024, there were so many that had dropped, and we couldn’t figure out why there were these stragglers hanging on.”

The holdouts have been firm, she said.

“By summer 2024, we started getting messages from the remaining colleges as if we were crazy — ‘What are you talking about? Of course this is going to be permanent,’” Sinatra recalled. 

She told the Register it is easier to get an exemption from a college’s coronavirus vaccine mandate than it used to be — except for students being trained in health care, who often run into hospitals’ vaccine requirements when they try to do their practical work during their final year in school.

As for the colleges still requiring the vaccine, she noted they have a decision to make, given Trump’s new executive order. She said she doesn’t expect them either to go without federal funding or file a lawsuit.

Sinatra said, “All of these colleges on that list take federal funding of some sort, and if they’re going to continue to receive federal funding, they’re going to have to comply with the executive order.”