April 15, 2021
Dear campus community:
By announcing our commitment to a vaccinated student body in the fall, we are taking the first steps to return to normal campus life. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve attempted to balance safety with normalcy and made changes as circumstances merit. This has served us well thus far, allowing us to hold in-person classes, live in residence halls, and engage in limited events. COVID-19 continues to be a serious health threat and life-saving vaccines protect the health of the FLC community and those we care about.
Here is our policy that will add COVID-19 to the list of vaccinations required for all students in the fall, which will take effect on August 1, 2021. This policy allows both medical and non-medical exemptions. You will find that it aligns with our existing protocols for the MMR vaccine.
Due to the FDA/CDC review of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, we are working with our local and state partners to ensure that we can have adequate supply of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines available to our community when students return in the fall. Given the increasing supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines nationally, these options may also be available to you in your home communities.
During the week of April 26, we will hold information sessions with health experts on the vaccines and answer questions you may have. Additionally, we have answers to some common questions on our Vaccine Requirements page.
We’re excited about the prospect of returning in full to some of our favorite aspects of FLC, like going on experiential field trips, attending athletic events, serving in downtown internships, and celebrating with our Skyhawk community.
We may need to make more pivots, but since the policy doesn’t take effect for several months, we still have time to make adjustments as the situation merits, always with our students’ safety in mind.
COVID is still with us, but we’ve done an amazing job making it so far. Please be vigilant in our final weeks of the semester to ensure that we do not spread COVID further and endanger the remainder of the semester or graduation ceremonies.
As usual, please email me directly if you have questions.
Best, Tom Tom Stritikus President Fort Lewis College