Dear Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota community,
As we continue planning for fall 2021, it has become apparent that we need better data on the percentage of our faculty, staff, and students who are vaccinated. While the university is not mandating the COVID-19 vaccination for fall, we do strongly encourage students and employees to obtain the vaccination. You can use the Minnesota COVID-19 Vaccine Connector to find out when, where, and how to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance for institutions of higher education offers recommendations for institutions with fully vaccinated campuses and those without fully vaccinated campuses. As that guidance indicates, colleges or universities “where not everyone is fully vaccinated will have a mixed population of both people who are fully vaccinated and people who are not fully vaccinated on campus which requires decision making to protect the people who are not fully vaccinated.” Hence, the guidance recommends that people who are not fully vaccinated continue to correctly wear masks. The guidance also recommends the continuation of physical distancing of 6 feet for people who are not fully vaccinated. These recommendations have significant implications for the university as we plan for fall 2021.
Accordingly, we are asking you to complete an anonymous questionnaire about your vaccination status. The questionnaire is designed to give us some sense of the aggregate number of faculty, staff, and students who are vaccinated on each of our campuses. This will help us prepare and plan for the return to campus. We strongly encourage you to complete this survey NOW, but no later than July 9, 2021. Of course, please be honest in your responses since our goal is to plan for the protection of everyone on our campuses.
