As of today, Gov. Spencer Cox has expanded COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to all Utahns ages 16 and older. We are in full support of this effort to get more Utahns vaccinated as this will help our campus and our state return as swiftly as possible to the normal rhythms of life.

As part of his order, the governor authorized state employees to receive two hours of administrative leave—immediately as well as retroactively—for scheduling and receiving a vaccine. On our campus, this applies to employees in paid positions, including work study employees and regardless of whether the employee is eligible for benefits.

The exception to the administrative leave is health care workers and support staff in Health Academics and Hospitals and Clinics, who were previously offered the vaccine through the Work Wellness Center before it was available within the community.

You can schedule a vaccine through coronavirus.utah.gov, vaccinate.utah.gov or the CDC’s vaccinefinder.org. Our contact tracers also are available to help you schedule a vaccine and you may reach them at 801-213-2874 (option 2).

We ask University of Utah supervisors to facilitate this administrative leave for any employee who wants to schedule a vaccine and to retroactively apply this leave credit to those who have already received been vaccinated. HR will be sharing information with payroll reporters about how employees should indicate this time on their timecards. If you have questions about the authorized administrative leave, please contact the Campus HR Solution Center at 801-581-7447.

We acknowledge that receiving a COVID-19 vaccination is a personal decision and that some employees may opt to not receive a vaccine. This is not a mandate.

We also know that the latest research available from our health experts shows the vaccine is working to slow spread of COVID-19 and reduce deaths from this highly transmissible disease.

The pandemic has been an immense challenge for our campus. We want you to know how grateful we are to all who have worked on our response, from facilities to our frontline health care providers, and the students, staff, and faculty who have taken the health guidelines seriously and with the best interests of our entire community at heart.

Ruth Watkins
President

Jeff Herring
Chief Human Resource Officer