Vaccine Mandate
In August, 2021, the University of Minnesota announced that All University of Minnesota students enrolled online or in person (including all undergraduate, graduate, professional, and Post Secondary Enrollment Option) must receive the COVID-19 vaccine or receive a religious or medical exemption.
Prior to the mandate taking effect, OMS partnered with the Office of the Vice President for Research and The School of Public Health Division of Epidemiology and Community Health to gather data about the impact of President Gabel’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate on vaccination status. The survey also asked about reasons why participants did or did not get vaccinated, comfort levels with returning to campus, perceived risk of developing serious illness due to COVID, and the level of support for the University vaccine mandate.
OMS worked with researchers to design and field the online survey on a compressed time frame due to the quickly-approaching vaccination mandate deadline.
OMS randomly sampled students, faculty, and staff from all five University of Minnesota campuses to participate in the survey. In addition, OMS administered the survey and consulted on email communications strategies and the utilization of incentives for maximizing participation. OMS was able to obtain a 50% overall response rate for the survey.