Dear Mines Community,
Based on input from students, faculty, staff, families and our Board of Trustees, and after consideration of our goals for the upcoming academic year, our experiences managing COVID-19 this past academic year, the efficacy of available COVID-19 vaccines, and public health guidance, we have decided to move forward from our position of strongly encouraging COVID-19 vaccination to having a vaccination requirement for our campus community. As detailed below, there will be an exemption option.
As we have communicated previously, our goal is to return to the distinctive, in-person and on-campus experiences that Mines is known for. We want to be able to utilize our classrooms and laboratories at normal capacities, allow indoor student organization meetings with food, have fans at our sports events, and offer extramural and extracurricular programs. We also want to eliminate the need for surveillance testing and the isolation and lost class time that results from quarantines.
Having a high level of vaccination, and knowing the vaccination status of our on-campus community members, is key to achieving this. This vaccination requirement applies to all students, faculty and staff who come to campus to attend and teach classes, study, conduct research or work. It does not apply to fully online students or fully remote workers who do not come to campus.
This vaccination requirement can be fulfilled by either 1) providing proof of vaccination or 2) submitting a vaccine exemption form by Monday, August 23. In keeping with other established vaccination policies at Mines and in the State of Colorado, students and employees can fulfill the COVID-19 vaccine requirement by claiming an exemption for medical or non-medical reasons (e.g. religious objections, FDA Emergency Use Authorization vaccine status, or personal beliefs). More information is available at www.mines.edu/vaccine.
We want to thank you for your thoughts and input. It was helpful in identifying issues and concerns that needed to be addressed as we prepare for the upcoming school year. Hopefully, you can see that this decision and the implementation plan reflect consideration of that input.
We will continue to provide updates and answers through the website linked above. If you have questions, please use the Q&A feature to submit those and we’ll attempt to get you answers and responses.
We are excited to be moving back to a more normal living, learning, teaching, research and work experience and want to thank you for your continued commitment to the health of our Oredigger campus community. We hope you all are well and enjoying a restful and productive summer.
Best regards,
Paul C. Johnson, President and Professor
Richard C. Holz, Provost and Professor
Kirsten M. Volpi, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
John H. Bradford, Vice President for Global Initiatives
Daniel P. Fox, Vice President of Student Life
Peter Han, Chief of Staff
Anne Stark Walker, Vice President and General Counsel
Brian Winkelbauer, President and CEO, Mines Foundation