This fall UCF will offer more of the in-person classes, services and experiences that contribute so much to student success. We want this to be a good and successful experience for you, and we strongly encourage you to get vaccinated as soon as possible if you have not done so already. Doing so is critical for your health and for the good of our campus community.
Doctors and scientists – including UCF alumnus Darin Edwards, director of immunology at Moderna – spent nearly a year developing three vaccines that are proven to be effective in preventing hospitalization and death from COVID-19.
Vaccines are safe, effective and readily available at no cost and by appointment or walk-up at Student Health Services or a location in your community or close to home. There is a vaccine waiting to be administered to you.
Because vaccines are widely available and extremely effective, UCF will not offer special considerations or extended online alternatives to in-person instruction this fall. UCF has long provided a blend of online, hybrid and in-person courses as part of our instruction, and we will continue to do so. However, courses that transitioned to remote learning this past year will return to their traditional settings with in-person instruction starting with the fall term.
Current CDC guidelines call for individuals who have not been vaccinated to quarantine following a positive test or exposure to an infected individual. This will mean that unvaccinated students who contract or are exposed to the virus will have to quarantine or isolate and may have to leave campus for that period. In this circumstance, the student will be expected to make up classwork, the same as a student who falls ill from the flu or other illness, for example.
Those who choose not to be vaccinated assume the risks of contracting COVID-19 and its impact on their studies, work and other activities.
Orlando joins communities around the nation in seeing a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations, nearly entirely among the unvaccinated, sparked by the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. This increase is why each of us must get fully vaccinated to protect ourselves and help keep our campus fully operational.
UCF is continuing to monitor the pandemic in consultation with local, state and national public health officials. Pandemic precautions such as the COVID Line, contact tracing, wastewater testing, genomic surveillance and the optional COVID Self-Checker will remain in effect through the fall. Masks are optional and everyone is encouraged to follow the latest CDC guidanceregarding wearing masks in public spaces. Vaccines will continue to be available at Student Health Services.
As we look forward to fall, we urge everyone who has not yet been fully vaccinated to do so before the busy, rich campus life we enjoyed before the pandemic begins once more. Armor Up, Knights, and get vaccinated!
