UMS Community,
There are only hours remaining for our dedicated students to comply with our COVID-19 vaccination requirement. If you’re among those students who have not yet visited our verification portal, there’s still time to do so by tomorrow’s deadline.
I’m writing here and now because it’s time to be blunt and clear: A student who chooses to do nothing will be withdrawn from their courses without a refund.
Let me repeat: If a student fails to register their vaccine status or request an exemption by logging in to our vaccine verification portal by the end of the day tomorrow, they will be withdrawn from their courses as of October 31 without a refund.
We can help, but these final students have to act.
More than 6.5 billion doses of safe and effective vaccines have been administered in a global mobilization against the COVID-19 pandemic. Here in Maine in our university communities, most of us have literally rolled up our sleeves and already done our part.
Since vaccines became available, we have built awareness, set examples, provided encouragement and incentives, established science-based vaccine requirements, and hosted clinics to provide members of our community with easy access to a vaccine. Tens of thousands of doses have been received and 24,570 verifications have been uploaded to our UMS vaccination tracking portal so far.
With 91 percent of our Fall 2021 in-person population already vaccinated, and weekly testing for those who want it or legitimately registered an exemption to vaccination, our approach and your dedication have made our university communities public health leaders in Maine, as well as a national model for how higher education can provide a near-normal college experience even with the Delta variant surging around us.
Just 471 Students to Go
We are working right up to the end to make sure every student registers their vaccination status or gets an exemption that requires weekly COVID testing by tomorrow’s deadline. Our phone calls, texts, alerts and outreach have already prompted hundreds of students to come into compliance so far this month, but we still have 471 students who need to act now in these final hours.
Students who do not take steps to come into compliance by the end of this week are choosing to withdraw from the semester without a refund. The immediate financial consequence is dire, but the potential life-altering impacts are even more severe. Withdrawal from a semester can hamper a student’s ability to complete their college education and qualify for financial aid in the future.
For any student who has not yet acted, the last minute is now here. And there’s still time to show your responsibility and commitment to the health and safety of our university communities.
We’re Doing More Testing this Month
Starting this week we are making a push to double our testing volume this month to keep our highly-vaccinated population safe and to further arrest the spread of the virus. Even if you are vaccinated please watch for the extra testing invitations on your campus to do your part.
Thank you for all you are doing on our campuses, in our classrooms, labs, and work spaces, and throughout the community to keep yourself and others safe this semester.
Sincerely,
