Skip to main
University-wide Navigation

President Capilouto sent the following email to campus on Friday, September 3, 2021.

Campus Community,

We are a community that always comes together to meet the moment – on behalf of our state and in support of each other.

That’s never been more important – or more evident – than now.

An important example: We are making tremendous progress in our effort to vaccinate as many people on our campus as quickly as possible. Here are the latest numbers:



Vaccination Rates

  • As of yesterday, among those who are on our campus – students, faculty and staff – nearly 79 percent had been fully vaccinated or were in the process of becoming fully vaccinated. 
  • That number, for the first time, includes new students (first-year, transfer and graduate students who joined our community this semester). 
  • Broken down further, those vaccination levels include:
    • Students: 75 percent
    • Faculty: 84 percent
    • Staff: 78 percent
  • Vaccination rates have increased by nearly 10 percent on our campus in less than a month. This increase occurred while we were still developing our full incentive plan for employees and launching a mandatory testing policy for unvaccinated individuals, which began just this week. 
  • We are rapidly closing in on our initial vaccination goal of 80 percent. You can find more information about our status and progress on our coronavirus dashboard.

Our Progress

We have made great progress; we will continue to build upon it.

Of course, we still have work to do. Eighty percent is a starting goal, not a finishing line.

Next week, after receiving further input from faculty and staff leaders, we will unveil an employee incentive plan for vaccinations (student incentives already are in place, which you can read about here).

Also, after receiving further input from faculty, staff and student leaders, we will detail compliance expectations – and disciplinary measures – that the university will impose for members of our community who are required to test but fail to do so.



Mandatory Weekly Testing

We recently communicated about our mandatory weekly testing program for students, faculty and staff who are unvaccinated. Here are some initial details about that plan, which began this week:

  • The entry testing deadline for unvaccinated students is Sept. 5. Ongoing weekly testing will begin Tuesday, Sept. 7.
  • Expanded testing sites for employees opened Wednesday, Sept. 1. The first week of mandatory testing for unvaccinated faculty will conclude on Sept. 12. After that date, faculty, staff and students will be on the same weekly schedule for mandatory testing until vaccinated (Mondays through Sundays). 
  • Students, faculty and staff who are in the required testing population received communication earlier this week regarding the schedule and the expanded testing sites to make it as easy as possible to comply. 
  • You can read that communication here. In short, if you received an email, you are required to test. If you didn’t receive one, you aren’t. If you are vaccinated and received an email about testing, you need to upload your vaccination documentation here.
  • You can access information about the testing locations and hours of operation here
  • Testing locations will be closed on Monday, Sept. 6, in observance of Labor Day. 
  • Communication to those who are required to test will be sent each week as a reminder of their responsibilities to comply with this important safety measure.

We have built a modern public health infrastructure to support the health and wellness of this community as we work to meet the incredible challenge of a global pandemic. You can reach UK Health Corps by calling 859-218-SAFE or emailing healthcorps@uky.edu.

Our continued and sustained progress is a testament to the commitment of this community to keep each other and all those we serve healthy and safe.

It’s a testament to what we can do working together.

Thank you for what you to do to make progress for our campus — and our Commonwealth — possible.

Eli Capilouto