Right upfront, I should specify that this story did not come from the Babylon Bee, though in previous times it probably would have been a popular entry for a satire site. This, however, is no laughing matter. The New York Post reports that a 22-year-old senior at Rutgers University, Logan Hollar, was locked out of his Rutgers email account and prevented from registering for classes because he failed to provide proof of vaccination against COVID. This happened despite the fact that all of Logan’s classes are conducted online and he does not physically show up at the campus, which is roughly seventy miles from his home. This is only the latest example of liberal institutions “following the science” down a rabbit hole and into some make-believe world where the novel coronavirus can travel like a computer “bug” across the internet.

A New Jersey student has said he is barred from taking classes at Rutgers University because he has not been vaccinated — even though he is only studying virtually from home.

Logan Hollar, 22, told NJ.com that he largely ignored the school’s COVID mandate “because all my classes were remote” from his Sandyston home, some 70 miles from Rutgers’ campus in New Brunswick.

But he was locked out of his Rutgers email and related accounts when he went to pay his tuition at the end of last month — and was told that he needed to be vaccinated even though he has no plans to attend in person.

Logan’s stepfather (who is fully vaccinated) is protesting the decision along with his stepson. With some barely concealed snark, he said that he is “highly confident that COVID-19 and variants do not travel through computer monitors by taking online classes.”

No matter how you may personally feel about the vaccines or immunity mandates, Logan was clearly trying to do the right thing and play by the rules. He said that he is young and healthy and isn’t worried about COVID. But he intentionally selected only classes that were taught remotely for his final year so he could simply avoid going to the campus. He’s not putting anyone at the school at risk.

A Rutgers spokesperson gave some very confusing answers about why a student taking only online classes would be barred but admitted that it had been done. She also said that they informed Logan of the process whereby he could apply for an exemption for medical or religious reasons, but neither of those may apply in his case. Also, the exemption request process will take up to four weeks. Logan is already missing out on the first weeks of class and it will probably be too late to catch up even if he’s granted an exemption. He’s talking about transferring to another school, but they will almost certainly set him back by a semester, assuming he finds one to take him.

The unspoken message from Rutgers seems to be clear. If you refuse to go along with their narrative and you refuse to comply with their demands that you undergo a medical procedure you haven’t consented to, you will be canceled. You can say goodbye to your four-year degree from a high-ranking university system and whatever professional opportunities that might have availed you upon graduation. You will become part of the great unwashed masses who are no longer welcome in polite society and don’t receive the same rights and freedoms as everyone else.

If Logan and his family can afford it, he should probably consider transferring to a school in a red state. Assuming they are willing to accept and transfer his credits from Rutgers he can probably still recover from this. But his story is simply one more example of the battle lines being drawn over the issue of immunity passports and the vaccination nation.