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Vaccine Mandate Final Reminder: Faculty, Librarians, and Other Academic Personnel

June 12, 2023 Update: This policy is no longer in effect.

Sent: Sept 22, 2021

This message was sent to faculty, librarians, and other academic personnel who hadn’t started the medical or religious exemption process and for whom we don’t have a record of attesting in Workday to being fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The guidance below does not apply to campus staff, academic student employees, campus student workers, or medical center staff, who will receive guidance directly from UWHR or UW Medicine.

Good afternoon,

Our records indicate that you did not attest in Workday to being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and that you have not started the medical or religious exemption process. This is our final reminder that if you wish to request a medical or religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccination mandate, which is now a condition of employment, you have until 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 24, to fully complete the required process below.

If you were recently employed and this is your first communication regarding the COVID-19 vaccination requirement and exemption process, additional information is available at COVID-19 Vaccination a Condition of Employment/Appointment.

MEDICAL EXEMPTION AND ACCOMMODATION: If you have an underlying medical condition and/or disability that prevents you from receiving an authorized COVID-19 vaccine, your healthcare provider must complete the UW COVID-19 Medical Exemption Form, which will be reviewed by UW Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S).

Step 1: Download the UW COVID-19 Medical Exemption Form and complete the Patient section. Ask your licensed healthcare provider (MD, DO, ND, ARNP, PA) to complete and sign the form and return it to you.

Step 2: Log into the secure Vaccination Exemption Request tool to submit your completed UW COVID-19 Medical Exemption Form.

Step 3: You will be notified by email of the decision, and if approved for an exemption, you will also be notified of the enhanced safety measures you will need to take.

RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION AND ACCOMMODATION: If you have a sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance that prevents you from being vaccinated against COVID-19, you are required to complete the online Vaccine Religious Accommodation Request Form, which will be reviewed by the Office of Academic Personnel.

Step 1: Log into the secure Vaccination Exemption Request tool to complete a series of questions required to process your religious exemption request.

Step 2: You will be notified by email of the decision, and if approved for an exemption, you will also be notified of the enhanced safety measures you will need to take.

If a medical or religious exemption does not fit your personal circumstances, please make your vaccination appointment as soon as possible. Governor Inslee’s proclamation requires that faculty, librarians and other academic personnel who are unable to provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination and are not approved for a medical or religious exemption and accommodation will not be able to engage in work for the University of Washington after Oct. 18, 2021, and will be subject to separation from the University of Washington in compliance with provisions of relevant employment policies and labor contracts.

There are many local places where you can be vaccinated, including UW Medicine, doctor’s offices and pharmacies. The deadline to receive the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine is Monday, Oct. 4.

UW Medicine: Some School of Medicine employees whose vaccination status was verified through the UW Medicine process may not yet be showing up in Workday records causing you to get these reminders in error. If this applies to you, please disregard this message.

If you have any questions, please contact your Academic HR Business Partner at acadpers@uw.edu.

 

Preparing for 2021-22 Promotion and Tenure (P&T) Cycle

Step 1 – Mandatory P&T: Academic HR (AHR) sends dean/chancellors’ offices a list of academic personnel for whom, according to Workday, a mandatory promotion/award of tenure decision must be reached during the 2021-22 academic year.

Dean/chancellors’ offices must review this list for accuracy and note any discrepancies. If there are any discrepancies in the list, contact AHR immediately with corrections.

Step 2 – Non-Mandatory P&T: Dean/chancellors’ offices must populate the 2021-22 Expected Non-Mandatory Template with the names of all academic personnel being considered for non-mandatory promotion in the 2021-22 academic year.

Collecting these names prior to receiving non-mandatory P&T records is critical for accurately tracking cases throughout this process. Email a completed copy to AHR before September 18, 2021 (October 15, 2021, for UW Libraries).

Step 3 – Candidate Materials: Reach out to candidates and ensure all their materials are up-to-date.

IMPORTANT: An updated CV and a complete record of peer and student teaching evaluations must be included in the P&T record.

Step 4 – Workday Records: Unit administrators should use the Pre-Record Submission Workday Checklist to ensure Workday fields are complete and correct for all academic personnel being considered for promotion and/or tenure.

Step 5 – P&T Checklist: Use the 2021-22 Promotion and Tenure Recommendation Checklist to ensure all materials are included in each P&T record. Attach a copy of the completed checklist as the cover sheet for all mandatory, non-mandatory and non-mandatory early P&T records.

Note: Contents of each P&T record must be arranged in the order outlined on the checklist.

Dean/chancellor’s office administrators should review the P&T Submission User Guide prior to submitting completed P&T records.

Important Dates

Non-mandatory promotion lists due to AHR – September 18, 2021
AHR Promotion and Tenure Training – September 21, 2021
Librarian non-mandatory promotion lists due to AHR – October 15, 2021
All Workday updates complete for academic personnel being reviewed for promotion and/or tenure in 2021-22 – December 1, 2021
Mandatory P&T records due to AHR – December 13, 2021
Non-mandatory P&T records due to AHR – February 1, 2022
Non-mandatory clinical and affiliate P&T records due to AHR – March 1, 2022
Librarian P&T records due to AHR – April 29, 2022

Update to OAP Visa Request Tool

On June 30, OAP will update our visa request tool. To perform the update there will be a scheduled outage from 4-6pm when the tool, including visa request forms, will be unavailable.

The upgrade will affect draft visa requests. OAP strongly encourages units to finalize and submit any drafts ready for OAP review before the scheduled outage. Anyone with a draft visa request in the system as of June 30 at 4pm will receive an email asking them to carefully review their drafts. Some saved draft data will need to be reentered manually.

Improvements in this update include the following:

  • More user-friendly landing page
  • “Manage files” function enhancements
    • New easy-to-use “drag and drop” upload option
    • Ability to delete recently-uploaded files
  • Improved invoicing
    • Better functionality for post-billing invoice corrections
    • More accurate invoicing for J-1 amendments
  • Easier-to-use “country of citizenship” fields

Significant changes going forward:

  • H-1B prevailing wage documentation collection
    • Units will now have to provide Prevailing Wage Intake Form and copy of job ad, if relevant (unless the title or visa category is exempt), to successfully submit the H Visa Request.
    • This will allow ISO to start processing earlier, shortening total processing time.
  • New “Add J-2 dependent” form
    • This replaces the “Request For Family J-2 DS-2019” form.
    • Units can now add a dependent for an existing J-1 by going to their list of J-1 visa requests and selecting Amend > Add Dependents
  • J-1 field changes
    • The J-1 visa request form now asks slightly different questions for scholars currently in the U.S. These will allow ISO advisors to more quickly determine eligibility for extensions.
    • “Home country position” field values will now align with ICE’s SEVIS lookup table (table 28)
  • Record retention
    • Uploaded files will now be deleted one year from when a request is complete. (Note: The visa tool is not OAP’s system of record for visa records; OAP uses UW-IT’s Enterprise Document Management system to ensure compliance with records retention.)
  • Revised intake forms
    • The H and J Visa Intake Forms will also be updated to reflect these changes; please make sure you are using the most recent version starting July 1.

2021/06/30 – upgrade complete; link added to the new “add J-2 dependent” form.

Contact acadvisa@uw.edu with any questions.