To: Wellesley College Faculty and Staff
From: President Paula A. Johnson
Re: Update on Faculty and Staff Vaccination Protocols for Fall
Date: July 15, 2021
As we look forward to the academic year ahead, we are proud of what we have accomplished together during the pandemic and how our community rose to meet our greatest challenge.
The most effective way for us to help keep our community, families, and loved ones safe in the coming year is to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. If you have not yet been vaccinated, I strongly urge you to schedule an appointment or go to a walk-in vaccination site immediately. Vaccination is free and widely available.
As we announced in May, we are requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for all students and expect that nearly 100 percent will have been vaccinated by the start of classes. International students who are unable to get an approved vaccine in their home country will be quarantined at a hotel and will be vaccinated upon their arrival to campus.
As a residential college, it is equally essential to achieve more than a 90 percent rate of vaccination among faculty and staff. All faculty and administrative and union staff are, therefore, required to upload proof of vaccination to Workday by August 2.
It will take vaccination rates of 90 percent or higher among faculty and staff—in addition to nearly all students—to achieve herd immunity within our campus community. When we achieve this goal, we hope to be able to relax some of the safety protocols that will otherwise be necessary, such as mask requirements inside buildings and in classrooms, limitations on eating together, limitations on gatherings, and restrictions regarding hosting guests on campus. Of course, all such decisions will depend on the state of the pandemic and public health guidance at that time.
We are optimistic that acting together as a community we will reach this level of vaccination without a mandate. However, if we can’t confirm by early in the academic year that over 90 percent of our faculty and administrative and union staff have been vaccinated, we will have to reconsider this decision. If we establish a vaccine mandate, unvaccinated faculty and staff would face significant consequences.
How to provide proof of vaccination information in Workday
We appreciate that many faculty and staff have already provided vaccination information in the toolbox on the MyWellesley portal. However, to make sure that we base our health and safety protocols on an accurate assessment of the level of risk on campus, it is essential that we have verification of the vaccination status of our community members.
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By August 2, employees need to log in to Workday and click on the COVID-19 Resources icon.
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Please read and follow the instructions from Library and Technology Services (LTS) for taking a photo of your vaccination card and uploading it in Workday. This information will remain confidential and secure.
The College is committed to providing all necessary technical assistance to enable every member of our community to meet this requirement. For those working on campus, LTS staff will be available at the testing site on Mondays and Thursdays from 7 to 9 a.m. and from 2 to 4 p.m. to answer questions about how to upload your vaccination card. For those working remotely and those with questions, please call 781.283.3333 or email the LTS help desk to schedule an appointment, so LTS can provide one-on-one assistance while protecting individual privacy. If you have any questions about your vaccination status or special circumstances, please contact Human Resources.
We all want our community to be healthy, safe and enjoy the joys of working and being together on campus, along with our students this year. We want to see fewer masks and more smiles, more gatherings, more shared meals, and more fun. We can only get there if we are able to achieve a vaccination rate of over 90 percent. It’s up to us, so please join me in helping to reach this goal.
