March 19, 2021

To the Dartmouth community,

To support the vaccination of as many people as possible, Dartmouth is continuing to explore ways to work with the states of New Hampshire and Vermont to vaccinate our campus population, and will provide regular updates to you on our progress in this effort.

Today, we are pleased to announce that we have finalized a partnership with the state of New Hampshire to help facilitate scheduling for some of our New Hampshire employees and students at a state-run vaccination site at the former JCPenney in West Lebanon. Here are the details:

--These state-administered vaccine appointments are available to all Dartmouth staff and students who are New Hampshire residents and fall into the state's 2a or 2b vaccination categories (or any earlier categories). Phase 2a includes at-risk staff who work in New Hampshire K-12 schools, licensed childcare facilities, and licensed youth camps. Phase 2b includes people 50 to 64 years of age. --Students who fall into one or both of these two categories do not have to be enrolled in classes to participate, but they do need to be residing in New Hampshire, which includes campus residences. --Appointments are not available for Vermont residents. --The shots will be offered over the course of several weeks beginning this Tuesday, March 23. --Unfortunately, this opportunity is not available for employee/student family members or partners.

If you qualify because of your age, you'll receive an email from our Occupational Medicine office inviting you to fill out a survey that will provide the state with the information it requires in order to schedule you for an available time.

If you qualify for a vaccine because of a different reason, students should contact Dick's House at dicks.house.health.service@dartmouth.edu and staff and faculty should contact Occupational Medicine at occupational.medicine@dartmouth.edu to be registered (please do not include any medical details in your email).

Non-exempt employees who need to take time off to be vaccinated will be paid for up to two hours to receive the vaccine if their appointment occurs outside of their normal work schedule. They may leave work for up to two hours to get the vaccine if it is being administered during their normal work week. Additionally, Dartmouth will allow employees to take up to one day of Other Lost Time if Axiom Medical instructs them to stay home because of symptoms following their vaccination.

There is also good news to share from the state of Vermont, which announced this morning that all Vermonters age 16 and older will be eligible for vaccines on April 19, and older Vermonters will be eligible even sooner. More information is available at https://www.healthvermont.gov/covid-19/vaccine/getting-covid-19-vaccine.

In light of positive vaccination trends and declining transmission rates in our community, we are evaluating our policies relative to those who are vaccinated, and we anticipate having more to say on that front in early April.

We hope that staff and students who qualify will take advantage of this opportunity to help protect their health and the health of our community. Studies show that vaccines are effective at keeping you from getting COVID-19. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, getting a vaccine will also help keep you from getting seriously ill if you do contract the virus.

As more of us are vaccinated, we all come closer to returning to normal operations. In the meantime, we will continue to pursue ways to help make vaccinations available to people here on campus.

Sincerely,