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July 27, 2021: Vaccines Required for University Travel

Dear St. Thomas students, faculty and staff,

The university is continuing its work to get an accurate count of the individuals on campus who are vaccinated against COVID-19, with a target completion date of Aug. 1. We will use this data to make informed decisions about safety measures on campus this fall – the higher the vaccination rate, the less restrictive the measures. Our job is to keep the university safe.

While we can establish measures on campus, we cannot do the same outside St. Thomas. Therefore, starting next week, St. Thomas will require COVID-19 vaccines for community members participating in university-sponsored travel. This policy is effective on Monday, Aug. 2, and will apply to:

  • St. Thomas employees (faculty, staff and student workers), students, student clubs and organizations, contractors and volunteers and any external participants in St. Thomas-sponsored travel
  • Trips of any duration and any distance from the St. Thomas campuses that involve air travel (both domestic and international) or overnight accommodations for one or more night
  • Any business-related trips where work is conducted for the benefit of St. Thomas or using St. Thomas resources
All faculty, staff and students participating in university-sponsored travel will need to take the following two steps:
  1. Register in the St. Thomas Travel Registry, or confirm that the group leader has registered the travel (including group travel led by a St. Thomas faculty or staff member, such as a St. Thomas athletic team, choir or orchestra).
  2. Complete the Center for Well-Being’s Consent to Share COVID-19 Vaccination Information form found in myHealthPortal.
This decision is aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for domestic travel during COVID-19 that advise unvaccinated people to delay travel until they are fully vaccinated. For questions, please call Tim Lewis, AVP for Global Learning and Strategy, at (651) 962-6741.

To help accommodate this policy, the university will host on-campus vaccination clinics this fall. In the meantime, we encourage anyone who has not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19 to schedule an appointment through:
As a reminder, shortly after Aug. 1, we will assess our vaccination rate and share that data, along with any updates to fall plans.

Finally, please be sure to take advantage of our vaccine incentive program – this is the final week to sign up, and we have some great, grand prizes to award next week. All community members who are fully vaccinated or have received the first dose with a scheduled appointment for the second dose are eligible to participate. Don’t miss your opportunity. Thank you to all who have participated so far!

Sincerely,

The University Action Response Team