After Two Years of Activism, YAL Celebrates End of COVID-19 Mandates at Colleges and Universities

YAL mobilized on 37 campuses, collected thousands of petition signatures, and advanced dozens of pro-liberty bills

Austin, TX — Today, Young Americans for Liberty (YAL)—the nation’s most active youth liberty organization—is celebrating the effective end of COVID-19 tyranny on campus. While many colleges and universities continue to impose COVID-related restrictions and undermine student rights, the tide is finally turning. Many colleges and universities have lifted their mask and vaccine mandates, which YAL helped expedite around the country. The organization now fully expects this semester to be the last COVID-19 semester in U.S. history.

Since the pandemic began, YAL fought COVID-19 vaccine mandates on 37 college campuses, most notably at Rutgers University and Virginia Tech University. At Rutgers, Sara Razi—a junior at the school and one of YAL’s New Jersey state chairs—organized a protest against Rutgers’ vaccine mandate last year, rallying hundreds of students in support of medical freedom. At Virginia Tech, YAL activists circulated a petition encouraging students to protest mandatory vaccination on campus, garnering hundreds of signatures in a matter of weeks and delivering them to the administration.

In 2021, YAL also promoted a petition to “end the endless pandemic,” rallying students to speak out against the unprecedented government overreach of the COVID-19 era. YAL’s various petitions have garnered thousands of signatures across America, putting pressure on college administrations to revoke their restrictive policies.

All the while, YAL continued to influence policymaking at the state level, rallying legislators to fight back against COVID-19 tyranny. Members of YAL’s Hazlitt Coalition—the organization’s growing network of more than 170 pro-liberty legislators from nearly 40 states—filed 25 bills defending American citizens’ rights against COVID-related infringements.

“As we see campus bureaucrats and state officials finally defend students’ freedom because it’s become politically expedient, YAL wants to make sure that we give praise to our college activists, who have fought medical tyranny on campus since day one,” said JP Kirby, YAL’s director of student rights. “From the YAL members who organized anti-lockdown protests in March 2020 to those who mobilized their chapters against vaccine mandates, these activists have stood up for liberty—even when it was unpopular with their schools, their friends, and their own families.”