Notre Dame announced vaccination against the COVID-19 virus will be required of students attending the university in the Fall of 2021. A university spokesman says that faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated, but at this time will not be required to do so.
(You can read more in the release below.)
The University of Notre Dame will require all students — undergraduate, graduate and professional — returning to campus for the fall 2021 semester to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the University’s executive officers — President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Charles and Jill Fischer Provost Marie Lynn Miranda and Executive Vice President Shannon Cullinan — wrote in a letter sent today to the campus community. The University will accommodate documented medical or religious exemptions.
“The safety of the University and local communities is always our highest priority,” Father Jenkins said. “Requiring students to be vaccinated for COVID-19 is a new and important addition to our health policies, one that we believe will enhance public health at Notre Dame and in our community, while also contributing to our ability to return to a more vibrant campus environment.”
The announcement comes in advance of the University opening a clinic Thursday (April 8) with the Pfizer-BioNTech two-dose vaccine, making it especially easy for current students to meet the vaccine requirement.
The vaccination clinic will use the Compton Family Ice Arena and will administer first doses from April 8 to 15, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Second doses will be administered from April 29 to May 6.
In their letter, the executive officers encouraged students to be vaccinated at the on-campus clinic in the days and weeks ahead. They indicated that officials with the Indiana Department of Health have assured the University that there will be ample supply to fully inoculate the student body and any faculty and staff who have not yet been vaccinated.
The University’s leaders also encouraged anyone on campus who has been vaccinated to register their status through an online tool.
The University currently requires enrolled students to be immunized for hepatitis B, meningitis, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus and chicken pox, and last fall required all students to receive the flu vaccine, again with medical and religious exemptions.
