The University of Colorado system announced yesterday that it will be joining many other university systems across the country in requiring all University of Colorado students, faculty, and staff receive a COVID-19 vaccine before the start of fall semester 2021. This decision was made to benefit the health of not only our campuses but also the communities we call home. Our goal remains having our campus continue to serve our faculty, staff, and students' success and personal growth as we move past this public health crisis and into our collective, brighter future. CU Denver leadership will be providing more specific directives in the coming weeks and months, and until then everyone should refer to the FAQ page. Conversations and meetings about our goals for a healthy and functional campus in the fall will continue.
In that vein, I hope you were able to attend our Lynx Together Faculty and Staff Return Information Session on Tuesday, which provided a lot of good information and updates for summer and fall. I encourage faculty to attend a Lynx Together Listening Session next week as well. As we plan for the “next normal” of operating status on campus, the Lynx Together Faculty Return Team (FRT) is focused on understanding what faculty and staff need to be successful as we transition back to campus. Your perspectives, insights and feedback will be incorporated into a report of findings with recommendations to campus leaders:
Beyond our return to campus, I’d like to continue highlighting the importance of getting everyone in our Denver and Colorado communities vaccinated. Local news has been highlighting how Latinos in Colorado have disproportionately low COVID vaccination rates. You can be a part of the solution to this problem. This Saturday everyone in the CU Denver community is encouraged to volunteer at the Equity Vaccine Clinic at The Stampede On Havana Street (Aurora), Saturday, May 1, from 8:30 am – 3:00 pm. Sign Up Here to volunteer.
On a very positive note, I’d like to personally thank two Geography and Environmental Sciences students Cris Henriquez (MA, Applied Geography and Geospatial Science) and Jonathan Burton (PhD, Geography, Planning and Design) who’ve been volunteering for a project with the Latino Research and Policy Center to build an on-line map to help communicate with the Latino community in Denver about vaccination sites. Bringing their GIS expertise to the group, they set up a dynamic map (one that the organizers can continually update the site with new vaccination facilities) to communicate information about vaccination sites. This kind of problem solving to better our world is what being a Lynx is all about.
