Dear Pacific Faculty and Staff,

As we wind down the academic year, I eagerly look forward to seeing all of our students, faculty and staff back on our campuses starting this summer. I am deeply grateful for your resilience these past 14 months and your commitment to our students, each other and the university. We are turning the corner!

As we prepare for our return, we are encouraged by decreasing COVID-19 positivity rates and increasing vaccination rates in our three counties. With the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff and community our highest priority, we are requiring all new and returning Pacific students to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 before returning to classes this summer and fall (read full message). We will allow exceptions based on medical and religious reasons. 

Like many U.S. universities, we are still considering whether to require employees to be vaccinated prior to returning to work on campus. These decisions involve complex issues. If we do require COVID-19 vaccinations, there will be medical and religious exemptions. 

While vaccination status will affect how we teach and work on campus, employees’ personal health information is confidential and protected under HIPAA laws. Pacific employees, particularly supervisors and managers, should not ask employees about their vaccination status or intention to receive the vaccine. 

Employees who have been fully vaccinated are encouraged to confidentially share this information with the university. This will help us assess the percentage of our campus communities that have been vaccinated. If you have been fully vaccinated at one of Pacific’s clinics, this information is recorded in the university’s secure medical records system. You do not need to do anything at this time. If you have been fully vaccinated somewhere other than one of Pacific’s vaccination clinics, we ask that you upload a scan or image of your completed vaccination card to our confidential vaccine portal. 

Regardless of vaccination status, all employees on the Stockton and Sacramento Campuses will still need to complete the daily health screening form online or in the Pacific app (available in the Apple Store and Google Play) before visiting campus until further notice. The screening app has been updated to allow you to indicate if you have been vaccinated, which will assist the university to better manage the health and safety of our community. All information is confidential.

The university will continue to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), state and county guidelines for acceptable health and safety practices. Please check Pacific's COVID-19 website for updates regarding practices now allowed for vaccinated individuals per these guidelines. We continue to update the Employee, Student and Safety Plan tabs of our COVID-19 website, as well as our Health and Safety Plan, to reflect these changes/new protocols. I encourage you to visit the website regularly as the guidance evolves. 

We will share more information about our employee return plans and health and safety plan as soon as they are available. In the meantime, I encourage you to get fully vaccinated if you haven’t done so already. 

If you have questions about employee health and safety requirements or Pacific’s response to COVID-19, please visit Pacific’s COVID-19 website or email the COVID-19 Council at COVID-19_information@pacific.edu.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in person!

Maria Pallavicini, PhD
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Chair, COVID-19 Council