United Academics updated statement on vaccine mandate, 9/9/21

The University of Vermont has consistently encouraged its faculty to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and has successfully carried out a vaccination mandate for students. However, the administration has not answered UA’s request to develop a policy requiring faculty to be vaccinated. As we enter the second week of the semester with cases rising in Vermont, and increases in cases among children, we call on UVM to institute a vaccine requirement for faculty.

Many other employers across the country have mandated vaccinations for employees. UVM should certainly be able to do the same in the interest of the health and safety of our campus community and the broader community, particularly to help protect those who cannot yet be vaccinated.

We call on UVM to: 1) require that by a reasonable date faculty members, other than those with standard exemptions, document that they are fully vaccinated, 2) develop a confidential HIPAA compliant system for documenting the vaccination status of faculty, and 3) develop and track mandatory weekly testing for those faculty members who are not fully vaccinated.

United Academics is committed to protecting the health and safety of our community. UVM students are required to be vaccinated, and United Academics supports the same requirement for faculty.