UW-System Celebrating High Vaccination Rates of Students and Staff

Friday, September 3rd, 2021 -- 11:01 AM

(WMTV) The University of Wisconsin is celebrating meeting or exceeding its COVID-19 vaccination goals among students and staff heading into the fall semester.

According to numbers released Thursday, nine in ten people in the Madison campus community are fully vaccinated. Among students, UW numbers show 91 percent of the ones who will attend in-person classes on campus have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 88 percent have already completed their series and the subsequent two-week waiting period.

Students who plan to live on campus reported an even higher vaccination rate. The university reports having documentation from 92 percent of University Housing residents showing they completed their series.

That figure climbs to 94 percent when including those who have received at least one dose. Faculty vaccination rates couldn’t get much higher, the university reports, with 99 percent of professors now fully vaccinated.

Expanding beyond them to include the entire UW staff, the number who have completed their series still sits at a remarkably high 92 percent. Those numbers far outpace even the surrounding Dane Co. community, which leads the state, and is among the top tier in the country, with just under 70 percent of the population being fully vaccinated, a number UW officials pointed at, saying the campus is “fortunate to be situated within” the county.

According to the university, its student vaccination is in-line with or higher than other Big Ten schools. It credits the success so far to its repeated and highly visible messaging and a strong focus on the topic.

UW continues to offer no-cost vaccines through its University Health Services for the remaining students and staff who have nor received one. The announcement comes as the UW System as a whole and state Republican lawmakers continue to clash over if the university’s have the ability to impose mask and vaccine requirements on the students and staff without legislative approval.

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