St. Francis College Joins the White House's Covid-19 College Vaccine Challenge
St. Francis College (SFC) is joining colleges across the country in an effort to end the COVID-19 pandemic, by signing on to The White House and the U.S. Department of Education's COVID-19 College Vaccine Challenge.
As part of the Challenge, SFC promises to fulfill three key commitments:
- Engaging every student, faculty, and staff member: making sure every member of the SFC community knows they are eligible for a vaccine and has resources to find one.
- Delivering vaccine access for all: making it easy for SFC students, staff, and faculty to get vaccinated at sites nearby them this summer.
- Organizing the SFC community: identifying champions for vaccine efforts across SFC and implementing a plan to get as many members of the community vaccinated as possible.
Last week, SFC announced it will require all its students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of coming to campus in the 2021-22 academic year. Students must submit proof of a full vaccination – or request a medical or religious exemption – by August 1, 2021 in advance of the first day of fall semester on September 8. The College is strongly encouraging its faculty and staff to get the vaccine, too.
"While most adult New Yorkers are now at least partially vaccinated, many of our students – just like the rest of their age cohort in our city – aren't yet there," said Stanley Bazile, Ph.D., dean of students. "It's so critical Terriers know that the vaccine is safe, effective and the most important step we can take to protect ourselves and others when it comes to this virus. We're here to help our students get the information they need so they can feel good about getting vaccinated. And we applaud every Terrier for making the choice to do so!"
The College Vaccine Challenge is intended to help close the vaccination rate gap between younger and older Americans. Only 51% of New York City residents between ages 18 and 24 have received at least one vaccine dose, compared to 65% of all adult New York City residents.*
To satisfy its Challenge commitments, SFC is encouraging its students, faculty and staff to use the SFC "I Got My Vaccine" filter on Instagram and Facebook posts, and to include the hashtag #COVIDCollegeChallenge and tag @sfcny when posting about getting vaccinated.
SFC is also sharing information about the vaccine's safety and effectiveness throughout its community; informing students, faculty, staff and others about vaccine eligibility and availability; and amplifying the voices of vaccine proponents among its student body and workforce.
The campaign calls for participating institutions to create and execute plans – and track progress – in whatever ways they see fit.
*data as of 6/15/21: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data-vaccines.page#nyc