Dear Colleague,
Vaccination against the COVID-19 virus plays an essential role in supporting the health and safety of our Lehigh and South Bethlehem community. As you know, all current employees are required to be fully vaccinated or have an approved religious or medical exemption (with a subsequent testing requirement) in order to maintain their employment at the university.
With vaccination widespread among our employees, current transmission of the virus is very low. We are grateful for the cooperation of our campus community.
To continue the implementation of our employee vaccination requirement, effective Wednesday, December 1, 2021, all new Lehigh employees — including faculty, staff, adjunct instructors, researchers, and wage employees — will be required to be fully vaccinated (having received their second vaccine dose at least 14 days before) and to have submitted their vaccination status, or have an approved medical or religious exemption from the vaccination, prior to their first day of employment.
In addition, in the coming weeks, all recently hired employees for whom we do not have a vaccination confirmation on record will receive a Docusign form via email from Human Resources to ensure that their vaccination status has been properly documented.
Because a wide range of employees may be involved in the hiring process for new employees, we wanted to share this information with all faculty and staff. Should you need more guidance to support the onboarding of a new employee, please contact the Talent Management Team in Human Resources at inemploy@lehigh.edu.
While no vaccine provides a guarantee against infection, COVID vaccination is safe and effective at preventing serious illness and death and continues to be the best protection against the spread of more contagious variants of the virus. We believe that these steps are necessary to continue to support a safe and healthy educational environment and workplace.
Sincerely,
Chris Halladay
Associate Vice President of Human Resources
For additional information, visit the FAQs on the Vaccination Resources Center under “Faculty/Staff Vaccine Requirement” and “General Vaccine Information,” which are updated on a regular basis.