Photo courtesy of York Daily Record.
By Ella White ’22
News Editor
Mount Holyoke College will require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in fall 2021. The College announced this decision in a statement posted to the Mount Holyoke website on June 30, two months after its announcement that all students will be required to be vaccinated.
The College will permit exemptions to the vaccination requirement based on religious or health grounds. The announcement asked that “we avoid making assumptions about any individual and their vaccination status; that we continue to extend the grace, understanding, empathy and support that are hallmarks of the Mount Holyoke community; and that we approach all interactions respectfully and with compassion as we make this transition.”
The College said its decision to require vaccinations “derives from the unambiguous advice of national, state and local public health and medical experts that achieving as near to universal vaccination as possible is essential if we are to keep our community safe.” The decision, according to the statement, reflects the positions of the “vast majority of Mount Holyoke employees” regarding vaccination requirements.
Additionally, the College announced an upcoming program to “facilitate interactions on campus through visible markers of each person’s comfort level with such interactions/physical distancing.” While the College has not released guidelines or further details, the plan will be implemented in the fall 2021 semester and be optional to students and faculty.
Employees’ documentation of full vaccinations are due by August 13.