Covid-19 Updates from Saddleback College

Updates - April 19, 2022

Students:

Our District’s Administrative Regulation governing COVID vaccine requirements for students is still in effect and so those requirements will continue for summer and fall. These requirements cover all students who enroll for classes with on-campus meetings. Medical exemptions are available for students who qualify, and religious exemptions are available for new, incoming students. For more information about exemptions, follow this link.

SOCCCD's vaccination requirement uses the CDC definition of "fully vaccinated." CDC has not yet changed that definition to include boosters, but if it does, we will require boosters, consistent with CDC guidance.

Vaccination requirements do not cover students who do not enroll for on-campus classes. If you are unvaccinated and wish to remain so, you can continue to take all-online classes this summer or fall. If you have been all-online up until now and are not vaccinated, you will need to provide proof of vaccination before you will be able to enroll in summer or fall classes with on-campus meetings, even if you are a returning student. For returning students who have provided proof of vaccination and have been authenticated (or who have approved exemptions), you are good-to-go for summer and fall without re-authentication or renewing your exemption.

Our priority is to continue to make our campus one of the safest places to be both when community spread picks up, in so called "waves," and between such waves, like the point we’re at now. The vaccine mandate is the most effective way of reducing risk of transmission at all times, whatever comes our way. Indeed, we have been able to move from a mask requirement to a mask recommendation for the last couple of weeks, while not experiencing a wave, because the vaccine mandate and low community transmission have lowered risk levels sufficiently to obviate the need for a mask mandate. (Should metrics change in the future, mask requirements will be reinstituted to reduce risk as community transmission increases.)

Vaccine requirements for students on campus (and all of us who support you) keep all of us safer. They will continue to keep us safer this summer and fall. You can come back to campus for the university experience you deserve and not take undo risk in doing so. Welcome back to Saddleback.

Elliot

Dr. Elliot Stern President, Saddleback College

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