President Shares Message with Campus: New State and Federal Developments Inform Decision
Dear Wilmington College Community,
Today, in light of some important new information, I am announcing that Wilmington College will be pausing our current requirement for all students, faculty, and staff to be fully vaccinated or have an approved exemption prior to the start of the Spring Semester 2022.
At the beginning of this academic year, I shared with campus our COVID-19 protocols and indicated that we would be reviewing them monthly beginning in September to determine if any modifications needed to be made.
I also shared that it is our responsibility to ensure that our campus is doing everything possible to reduce the spread of this virus and keep our community of students, faculty and staff safe.
In late summer, The Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus contributed to an increase in cases resulting in illnesses and deaths across the country. At that time, the FDA also officially approved a COVID-19 vaccine for use for adults.
At the beginning of the fall semester, we saw the vaccine rate among our campus community was well below where we hoped it to be.
On September 9, 2021, the federal government issued a mandate for all employers, including private colleges and universities, with over 100 employees to either mandate the COVID-19 vaccine or have weekly testing.
As we stated at the beginning of the semester, we have continued to monitor and adjust protocols as necessary. In recent weeks we have seen changes in the status of the federal government requirements and, this week, we learned federal judges have placed a stay on the orders. This means the federal mandates on organizations have been paused.
In light of this information, we are again making what we believe to be appropriate adjustments to our protocols by announcing that Wilmington College will be pausing our current requirement for all students, faculty, and staff to be fully vaccinated or have an approved exemption prior to the start of the Spring Semester 2022.
To be clear, all students, faculty, and staff are welcome to begin the spring 2022 term regardless of vaccination and exemption status.
We will continue to monitor the federal processes and legislation, and will update the campus community as more information becomes available. Updated campus masking, social distancing, and other related protocols will be shared early next week with the campus community.
Finally, I want to reiterate our support for members of our campus community to get vaccinated to protect themselves and others. There is significant evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective in reducing the negative impact of the COVID 019 virus in terms of preventing severe illness or death.
Thank you and Blessings to all.
Trevor Bates, D.HSc., AT
President
Wilmington College