ATLANTA - A group of Atlanta universities that includes Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College will require all students, faculty members, and staff to be vaccinated for the upcoming 2021 fall semester.

The Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUCC), which includes the three historically Black colleges and universities as well as Morehouse School of Medicine and the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library, made the announcement that employees and students will need to be fully vaccinated on Monday.

By the start of the semester, all students and staff will need two or more weeks to have passed since either their second dose in a two-dose series or their one dose of the single-dose vaccine.

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"As AUCC member institutions plan for summer programming and the fall semester, using the latest scientific data to implement vaccination protocols is the next step in keeping our community safe," the leaders of the AUCC members said in a statement Monday. "Vaccination of our community members is critical to continue meeting our highest priority—maintaining the safety and wellbeing of our constituents."

The institutions will offer vaccinations at the AUCC Student Health and Wellness Center as well as on campuses.

In the upcoming months leading up to the semester, each university will share their own specific information about how to receive or provide confirmation that students and staff have received one of the vaccines.

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Officials say there may be cases where students and staff members may be exempted from vaccinations, but the processes may vary for each institution.

The announcement has the AUCC joining a growing number of universities requiring students get the COVID-19 vaccine. Universities including Rutgers, Brown, Duke, Cornell and Northeastern recently told students they must get vaccinated before returning to campus next fall. They hope to achieve herd immunity on campus, which they say would allow them to loosen spacing restrictions in classrooms and dorms.