Starting Wednesday, a checkstop appeared on the records of about 5,000 students because they failed to complete UB's Menigitis Information Form, according to Student Health Services.
Until these students fill out the form - which can be found on the MyUB Web site - they will be prevented from registering for summer and fall classes.
Finding out that nearly one-fifth of students have yet to complete the one-question form comes as no surprise to Frank Carnevale, the director of Student Health Services.
"It's human nature for a certain percentage of the population to procrastinate," he said. "This past week we did a compliance survey and sent out targeted emails to UB students who still hadn't complied with the law to date."
According to MyUB, a new state public health law mandates New York colleges distribute information about meningococcal disease and vaccination to all students carrying six or more credit hours, whether they live on or off campus.
Many of the students who have not completed the form are graduating seniors who are not worried about being unable to register, according to Carnevale.
"We estimate that between one and 2,000 of those who hadn't completed the response form are graduating seniors," Carnevale said.
Josh Belleville, a junior accounting major, completed the form just to get it out of the way, but criticized the fact that a student could lie about whether he or she really had a recent shot.
"I thought it was stupid," he said. "There's no way they can really tell if I did it or not."
Some students who have yet to fill the form out didn't even know it existed.
"I didn't even know about it," said Melissa Dziengielewski, a junior psychology major. "But I'll fill it out now because I want to register."
According to Carnevale, Student Health Services has been working on the form's public information campaign since December 2003.
The cost of the vaccine, for those students who choose to get it at Michael Hall, is $70. If the shot were free, said some students, they would consider getting it, but many said $70 is too steep a price for a college student - even a health conscious one.
"If I had to pay $70 for the shot, I wouldn't get it," said Dziengielewski, who would have pursued it otherwise.
As Gov. George E. Pataki signed the public health law into effect last summer, UB readied its computer system to handle such a mass amount of information.
"Most of the small colleges in New York State were able to take care of this through letters sent to each student, but it would be next to impossible for a university of this size to reach such a huge amount of people that way," Carnevale said.
Starting in December 2003, UB Student Health Services began an outreach campaign to all UB students with at least six credit hours. Students were contacted via e-mail, print, group presentations, advertising and direct mail.
These messages urged students to comply by Feb. 11 and warned that UB would be restricted by law to allow any students who hadn't complied with the law to register for classes.
Carnevale says UB hasn't given up on getting the message across to every student.
"UB will also be performing a compliance survey each week until registration windows open and sending targeted emails to those who still haven't complied," he said.
Registration for summer classes begins March 22.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
