Dean’s Message re: Fall 2021 & Vaccinations

Dear incoming students,

I hope you are all faring well as we make our way through the next phases of the pandemic at BUSSW. I’d like to update you on the University’s plans for the fall 2021 semester.  

As Boston University President Brown recently noted, “we have maintained our residential campuses by adopting a rigorous set of public health protocols, coupled with a comprehensive testing program using the BU COVID-19 Laboratory, contact tracing, isolation of people with the virus, and quarantine of their close contacts.”  

For our incoming students on all campuses, I hope you can find peace of mind in the many careful considerations the University has taken throughout the pandemic, and specifically for the upcoming 2021-22 academic year.

President Brown announced earlier this month that BU would return to in-person teaching for the fall 2021 semester, and the School of Social Work will follow that format as well for our Charles River, Off-Campus and Hybrid programs.

It was also announced that Boston University will require all students enrolled in classes on all campuses to be vaccinated before the start of classes in the fall of 2021. 

You can read the detailed explanation in this BU Today Story. As President Brown notes, “Today, we are beginning what will be a vigorous campaign with the goal of having all our students vaccinated by the start of the fall semester. We believe this will be feasible as vaccines become widely available.”

We encourage all of our students, incoming and current, to get the vaccine as soon as possible. The University will make every effort to vaccinate students if they arrive on campus without vaccination in the fall. As the University does for other required vaccinations, there will be a process for accommodating medical and religious exemptions. The University plans to build an accurate database of vaccinations for our community to be able to design our public health protocols for the fall.

Detailed instructions for how to provide this information will be coming soon from Healthway, the platform the University has used since the start of COVID testing. Every student will be required to upload this documentation as soon as they have completed their vaccination.

More information will be coming from the University to address the expected questions around this new requirement.

Thank you for your commitment to BUSSW during this challenging, yet hopeful time as we work towards a safe return in fall 2021. We look forward to seeing you all in person in the fall.

Sincerely,

Dean Delva