The Texas Senate Committee on Higher Education is considering a bill that would require all first-time college students to be vaccinated for meningitis, regardless of where they live. Meningitis may be either bacterial or viral, but both forms are contagious.

Every year in the United States, approximately 2,500 people are infected and 300 die from meningitis, according to the Department of Health in New York. The meningitis vaccine does not prevent against all strains of meningitis, but it does prevent against the two to three most prevalent, according to the Centers for Disease Controls and Preventions.

Current law states that only students who live on college campuses are strictly required to be vaccinated and to send proof of vaccination 13 days before move-in day. Failure to submit the information results in the student being denied the right to move on campus.

If the bill goes into effect, all first-time students would have to turn in proof of vaccination to the public or private institution they are attending no later than 10 days before the first day of school.

Because college students are in close contact, meningitis could potentially become an epidemic on campuses. The St. Edward’s University Health Center currently offers the meningitis vaccine for free to students under 19.

The bill will go into effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house. If it does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, it would take effect on Sept. 1.