"As the director of a college health service, my prime task is to prevent people from getting ill and certainly from dying. I think it's a very very high [risk] to put a price tag on that."

Turco claims Dartmouth has vaccinated over half of its students. Next year, he said, the college plans to send out an even stronger recommendation.

Even if other colleges are not following Dartmouth's lead in recommending the vaccine now, Turco believes that they will soon, even if it takes more meningitis cases across the country to convince them.

"I think in the next few years there's going to be many more kids growing up who are going to get the disease," Turco said. "Slowly schools, one way or another, are going to suggest that people consider it and maybe go even stronger than that."