"We believe it is in the best interests of the health and safety of our entire university community to ensure that faculty and staff join with our students, who are already required to be vaccinated."

"Getting vaccinated is also safe and informed by science. As one of the world’s great research universities, we have first-hand experience with the life-saving discoveries that come from rigorous research and testing. In fact, researchers from our Medical Center conducted the nation’s first Phase 1 trials of the Pfizer vaccine.

"Perhaps most importantly, getting vaccinated is aligned with our Meliora and ICARE values. Our obligations are not just to ourselves, but to our patients, students, colleagues, friends, and families, and to the Rochester region more broadly. We are taking this step to live our values, to contribute to the overall health of our region, and to ensure that we can continue to learn, discover, heal, and create in a thriving University community that is healthy and safe.

"COVID-19 has been tough on all of us. The availability of vaccines that are effective against the most serious effects of this terrible disease – in its many variants – gives us hope of returning to some of the familiar patterns of our lives before the pandemic.

"Thank you for your hard work and sacrifice over the last year and a half, and thank you for doing your part to keep our University moving forward."