PENDLETON — As they look to reopen in the fall, colleges and universities are all trying to answer the question of whether to require their students to get their COVID-19 vaccinations before returning to the classroom.

Three of Oregon’s largest public universities answered affirmatively: Oregon State University, Portland State University and University of Oregon have all announced that students need to be fully vaccinated before returning to campus.

According to Casey White-Zollman, the communications director for the Oregon Community Colleges Association, none of the state’s 17 community colleges have made a decision on vaccination requirements.

Although the decision isn’t final, interim Blue Mountain Community College President Connie Green said BMCC is planning to let students return in the fall without their shots.

Green said the state is allowing higher education institutions to resume in-person classes as long as they require face masks and enforce some sort of social distancing rule, although a stringent 6-feet standard isn’t mandatory.

Given that Umatilla County sports one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state, Green said requiring students to vaccinate against COVID-19 would be a big ask.

But the situation could change based on vaccination rates and case rates, as well as what other institutions of higher learning decide to do.

“We’re not going to be trendsetters,” Green said.

The closest four-year university in Oregon, Eastern Oregon University, hasn’t publicly announced its vaccine policy yet, according to The Bulletin in Bend. But just across the border in Southeast Washington, colleges and universities are making decisions of their own.

The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin reported Whitman College is requiring vaccinations, while Walla Walla Community College and Walla Walla University are not. Washington State University’s recent decision to require vaccines for in-person classes means its Tri-Cities campus will have the same policy.

Green said the decision by Oregon’s various four-year schools could inform how their surrounding community colleges make their own policies. But for now, BMCC is making plans to start classes with masks and social distancing as the main safeguards.

The COVID-19 pandemic made a huge dent in enrollment after BMCC mostly shut down campus activities last spring, exacerbating a downward trend that the college had been struggling with for several years.

Green said the potential effect of the college’s vaccination policy is unknown: while it could allow BMCC to be more inclusive in welcoming back students to campus, she added that some students might be uncomfortable returning to classrooms where they could be exposed to unvaccinated peers.

Requirements or not, Green said BMCC continues to encourage all students and staff to get their vaccines, pointing to the college’s work in promoting a recent vaccination drive sponsored by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

The COVID-19 vaccine is available to all adults in Oregon.