Dear Colleagues,
As we eagerly anticipate our return to a more typical campus environment this fall, we continue to strongly encourage all faculty and staff to receive a COVID vaccine as soon as possible if they have not yet done so. Vaccination is the best way to ensure the health and safety of our community now and in the days and months ahead, especially in light of new and more transmissible variants.
Share Your Vaccination Status
As we plan for the fall, an important variable will be the vaccination rate of our community. As we have previously communicated, we are requiring vaccination of all students (while allowing requests for medical and religious exemptions) so we expect the student vaccination rate to be very high. To get better information about the vaccination rate in faculty and staff we are asking you to complete this survey from the Bethlehem Health Bureau (BHB) indicating your vaccination status as soon as possible. The information provided to the university will be in an aggregate form without personally identifiable information and will allow us to better understand the overall vaccination rate of our campus community. This information will guide our health and safety plans for the fall semester and allow us to make modifications if necessary.
On-Campus Vaccination Clinic - Indicate Your Interest
We also seek to make it as easy as possible for unvaccinated faculty and staff members to receive a vaccine. If you have not yet been vaccinated, the survey also offers an opportunity for you to indicate to the BHB your interest in a mobile vaccination clinic on campus for employees and their families (children 12 and older). We hope you will take advantage of opportunities to become vaccinated as soon as possible. Information about available dates and times of an upcoming on-campus clinic will be forthcoming and dependent on the survey response. Information at the bottom of the BHB survey also allows you to register for a vaccine immediately.
Many thanks to those who already have received or are planning to receive a vaccine, and to those who encourage others to do the same. A vaccinated campus is a stronger, safer campus, and our collective efforts toward vaccination will help ensure a successful return to the campus we all know and love.
-COVID Response Team