Dear CUNY Employees:

The CUNY Board of Trustees voted on Monday to authorize a vaccine mandate for faculty, non-teaching instructional staff, and employees in the Executive Compensation Plan in compliance with a public policy directive issued by Governor Hochul on December 31. This policy will help to ensure a continued safe return to in-person classes, programs, and facilities and further protect our University community.

The policy requires all full- and part-time faculty, all non-teaching instructional staff (which includes, among others, NTAs, CLTs, and those in the HEO series), and personnel in the Executive Compensation Plan, to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to remain employed by the University, except if a medical exemption, religious exception or reasonable accommodation has been granted.

We will be engaging the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the union that represents CUNY’s instructional staff, regarding the implementation details. I look forward to sharing additional details about the policy and implementation with you soon.

In the meantime, if you are among the few in our community who are still not fully vaccinated, I urge you not to wait any longer. The COVID-19 vaccines are the most reliable weapon we have to overcome this pandemic. If you’ve already taken the life-saving step of becoming fully vaccinated, please upload your proof via CUNYfirst.

Together, let’s have a safe and successful Spring 2022 semester.

Sincerely,

Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, Ph.D.
Chancellor