Welcome to summer 2021! Hope all of you will be able to take some time off to relax and replenish your energies!

We are working hard at Rice to prep for the upcoming fall semester. The single most important step towards our goals to keep everyone safe on campus is that everyone in our community needs to be vaccinated.

We realize that for a variety of reasons – including medical, religious and logistical challenges – a 100% vaccination rate may not be possible. Our previous survey of the Rice community showed a vaccination rate of approximately 80%, and we continue to encourage all members of our community — students, faculty and staff — to get vaccinated. Our goal is to get to at least 90%.

We can achieve this only if the largest constituency on our campus, our students, are almost all vaccinated for the next academic year. So, we are announcing today that we expect all students who come to campus, except those with an approved waiver for medical or religious reasons, to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to start the fall 2021 semester. We know this will pose problems for some of our international students, but we will work with them to ensure that they get the vaccine upon arrival and to avoid delays in their academic program. The small number of students who obtain an approved waiver from vaccination must continue to be tested for the virus at least weekly, whether they are living on or off campus, and wear a mask indoors at all times while on the campus. Additional information on vaccination is forthcoming and will be provided to students by June 15.