Face Covering Requirement Relaxed on Our Campuses

I am pleased to announce that face coverings for all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, as well as faculty and staff members and visitors, will no longer be required at any of our campuses or sites, with the exception that masks must still be worn by everyone in academic classrooms. This new policy does not apply to NSU University School. Additionally, faculty, staff, and students in Puerto Rico need to continue abiding by the governor’s mask requirements.

Additionally, university-sanctioned travel, which was suspended at the start of the pandemic, is now approved to resume according to university policy. And I am sure many of you will be happy to know that events (which include indoor dining) can now also resume at all our campuses, facilities, and sites.

Faculty and staff members, full- or part-time, with an approved medical or religious exemption from vaccinations, must continue to wear masks while indoors to protect themselves and others. Also, those students, faculty, and staff who must be in an environment where Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is required to be worn, must continue to wear a mask. Finally, anyone who wishes to continue to wear a mask may do so. NSU’s faculty and staff are now 99.7% fully compliant with the mandatory vaccination policy—a great commitment to creating a safer environment in which to learn and work.

On the student front, there has been a positive reaction, though not as much as I had hoped, to voluntary reporting of vaccination statuses. Such actions have resulted in only two campuses surpassing the 70% vaccination rate for students. If all our campuses reach the 70% vaccination rate, we will be able to eliminate the face covering requirements in all classrooms and make them optional. We also continue to encourage students who attend classes at any NSU campus or facility, to voluntarily register in the Vax Max portal so that we may reach the 70% vaccination rate throughout the university.

As previously noted, only two campuses – Jacksonville and Orlando – have reached the 70% vaccination goal and therefore masks will now be optional in the classroom at those two locations. As other campuses reach this goal, they too, will be exempt from the mask requirement in the classroom.

Only two NSU Residence Halls on the Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus—The Commons and the Cultural Living Center (CLC)—are below the 70% vaccination rate. Residents of these halls must continue to wear a mask while indoors, in common spaces, and when visiting other NSU residence halls. As in the campus locations, once these two residence halls reach the 70% threshold, face coverings will become optional for them as well.

Although we are lifting most of the requirements, all restrictions may be lifted as we receive greater vaccination rates on all campuses. However, the pandemic is not over. I strongly recommend that if you have not been vaccinated, please get vaccinated today for your safety as well as the safety of your fellow students and associates, and voluntarily register in the Vax Max portal.

NSU will continue to monitor all our campuses and communities, and if there is a spike in new cases, we may have to revisit all safety measures once again.

Thank you for all you have done to keep the pandemic at bay in Shark Nation.

Fins Up!

George L. Hanbury II, Ph.D.
President/CEO
Nova Southeastern University