February 1, 2022

Dear University of Oregon community members,

As projected by the Oregon Health Authority, the surge in COVID-19 cases from the Omicron variant has begun to plateau, and in some areas decrease. Weekly coronavirus cases are down 22 percent in the past seven days in the state, and there has been a  more than 75 percent decrease in reported cases among students and on-campus employees since the beginning of the term.

Your efforts—through vaccination, masking, and testing—to limit the continued spread of this variant in our community have made a difference. Thank you.

Even with all these measures, however, the highly transmissible Omicron variant continues to cause illness and significant disruption due to quarantine and isolation in our community. For these reasons, we are making the following adjustments to previously announced deadlines:

• The deadline for compliance with the booster requirement has been extended to Friday, March 18, 2022. We recognize that people who were impacted by COVID-19 over the past several weeks may not have been able to get a booster in time to meet the deadline, following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance to defer vaccination until recovery from acute illness. This will give individuals impacted by COVID-19 time to receive their boosters and avoid complications with tracking during a period when many are unable to comply. Receiving a COVID-19 booster remains an important part of preventing serious illness and a critical part of our layered safety measures. Everyone who has not already received their booster should do so as soon as eligible.
• The temporary policy that allows instructors the option to request moving courses that are experiencing 20 percent or more COVID-related student absences to synchronous online instruction has been extended to Monday, February 14, 2022. With the rate of decline in student cases, extending by one week will allow instructors more flexibility in these final weeks to ensure students can participate in classes and limit the disruption to their academic progression. We do not anticipate that this will be extended past February 14. All other policies related to instructor or student absences due to COVID-19 will continue until further notice.

Additional information about support and programs for students and employees who are experiencing impacts of COVID-19 are available on the Coronavirus Resources website.

Thank you again for your efforts to protect yourselves and our community.

Sincerely,

Patrick Phillips
Provost and Senior Vice President