Columbia’s COVID-19 Resource Guide now provides data on non-compliance with and exemption from the University’s vaccine mandate.

Provost Mary C. Boyce announced Friday morning via an email to the community that Columbia has now published the numbers of vaccinated and unvaccinated affiliates on its COVID-19 dashboard and has achieved 99.7% compliance with its vaccine mandate. In the email, Boyce also formally announced the continuation of current public health measures on campus through the month of October, including the indoor mask mandate, grab-and-go dining, and mass—though not universal—asymptomatic testing. Another Columbia spokesperson confirmed to Bwog that these vaccination data on the COVID-19 dashboard are a new addition within the past 24 hours. The full text of Boyce’s email is provided at the end of this article.

The University COVID-19 dashboard breaks down the affiliate population into two categories. Students are listed in one, while faculty, researchers, and staff members comprise the other. 79 students out of 27,695 are “vaccine mandate noncompliant,” which the University defines as having neither provided documentation of full vaccination to the University nor received an approved medical or religious exemption. 25 out of 13,632 faculty, staff, and/or researchers, meanwhile, are also “vaccine mandate noncompliant.” In a footnote on the dashboard, the University states that this cohort of 104 noncompliant individuals potentially includes those who may have received full vaccination but have not yet provided documentation to the University. 104, therefore, is the maximum number of possible non-exempt, unvaccinated affiliates. 

The dashboard includes the numbers of individuals who have received official exemptions to the vaccine, whom the University defines as still “vaccine mandate compliant.” 108 out of 27,695 students and 118 out of 13,632 faculty, staff, and/or researchers have received an approved exemption. Therefore, the 99.7% statistic cited by Boyce as the vaccine mandate compliance rate slightly exceeds the University’s actual vaccination rate.

Email sent from Provost Mary Boyce to the Columbia community at 11:55 am on Friday, September 24:

Dear fellow members of the Columbia community,

As we move past the start of the fall semester, we are delighted to see the successful return of over 40,000 Columbians to campus. It is gratifying to be together and witness our vibrant community taking steps to maintain our collective health and safety as we celebrate the return to in-person classes along with the continuation of research activity, clinical care, and other important services.

 We write with an update on our campus COVID-19 status as we approach the end of September: where we are now and the precautionary measures we will continue to take in the weeks to come, including an extension of the current face covering mandate.

Our Columbia community compliance with the vaccine mandate is currently over 99.7%. The number of COVID-19 cases remains small, and cases typically are asymptomatic or have been very mild. Our systems to identify and prevent transmission are strong, and are adjusted as needed. Last week, after a modest uptick in cases among College and SEAS undergraduate students—which was tied to students gathering socially while unmasked—several new measures including more stringent residence hall guidelines and increased surveillance testing were quickly put in place. We have also further expanded our contact tracing team. The good news is that, to date, we have no evidence of documented transmission in classroom settings.

Even with last week’s slight increase, the overall number of positive cases reported was limited: Last week, of the more than 8,200 tests conducted through our testing program, just 0.6% – or 50 in total – were positive. And gateway testing since the start of the academic year has consistently returned positivity rates under 0.2%.

In-person instruction and other work proceeds as planned. According to our COVID-19 Monitoring Plan, we remain at the yellow alert level, which indicates a continued low level of risk that we take seriously. In an abundance of caution, we will extend the following measures, currently in place, at least through the end of October:

Face coverings will continue to be mandated indoors  

Voluntary, surveillance, and wastewater testing will continue

Meals will continue to be “grab and go”  

Gathering size restrictions will remain in place 

As always, we aim to keep you updated through announcements like these; you can also visit our COVID-19 Resources website for the most current information, including campus testing results.   

Thank you for the care you take every day in helping keep our community safe.

Sincerely,

Mary C. Boyce

Provost

Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Donna Lynne

Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, CUIMC

University COVID Director

Campus via Bwog Archives