More than half of University of Michigan students planning to attend classes on the Ann Arbor campus this fall are reporting they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data released July 6 as part of a new vaccination dashboard.

The Ann Arbor Student Self-Reported Vaccination dashboard shares the current percentage (55%) of the total students expected to be on campus in the fall who have been verified as fully vaccinated.

The university verifies self-reported information for accuracy and that it meets the additional requirement of being an authorized vaccine. Data is refreshed daily.

As of July 5, about 25,740 student records have been verified as fully vaccinated.

Faculty and staff also are strongly encouraged to self-report their COVID-19 vaccination information through Wolverine Access as soon as possible. Since June 17, more than 16,700 employees have submitted their information.

An additional 4,367 records, representing students and staff, are in the queue for verification by the university as of July 6. At this time, there is no plan to add employee self-reported vaccination data to the dashboard.

“The vaccine has been shown to be safe and very effective, even against variant strains of the virus,” said Robert Ernst, associate vice president of student life and director of Campus COVID Response. “Having most students vaccinated is the most important means toward a more normal and healthy learning environment. It is recommended even for those who have already been infected with COVID to provide longer lasting immunity.”

The university recently launched a vaccination self-reporting incentive program for students and employees who submit proof of their completed COVID-19 vaccination and began awarding prizes last week. Prizes ranged from cash to unique experiences including U-M football tickets in a suite, a backstage tour for a major production from the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and a one-year membership to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens.

University officials are closely monitoring the self-reported student vaccination rate along with other metrics to make final decisions for the fall term, such as modifying the mask requirement in classrooms only for unvaccinated individuals if community incidence of COVID-19 remains low and the university achieves greater than 75% vaccination among students.

While face coverings remain required indoors, fully vaccinated students, faculty and staff who self-report their information to the university generally are exempt from those requirements. At this time, face coverings remain required in classrooms, on campus transportation and in health care areas where patients may be present.

The dashboard measures the student vaccination rate against a baseline of 47,000 students, an estimate calculated by averaging fall enrollment figures for the Ann Arbor campus over the past five years. Official Ann Arbor fall enrollment data is typically released in mid-October.

Also included on the dashboard is the Washtenaw County vaccination rate, which is currently 63.5%.

The university has asked all students to self-report their vaccination status—by either submitting information or reporting they do not consent to share information—by July 16.

Students who will not yet be vaccinated by July 16 are encouraged to complete the form by selecting “I do not consent” and return to update their information at a later date once vaccinated.

Under the new student expectations policy, which will be effective July 16, students will be required to notify the university of their vaccination status. Students who select “I do not consent” to share their vaccination status with the university will be required to sign up for weekly COVID testing in the fall through the Community Sampling and Tracking Program.

The dashboard was developed by the Campus Health Response Committee and is supported by U-M Information Technology Services.

Additional updates to the Campus Blueprint COVID-19 Data Dashboard were made to continue to better organize previous academic term COVID-19 tracking and data.

Changes include:

• Discontinuation of the Michigan Medicine Vaccination Administration data table.
• Archiving the pre-arrival testing data for Fall 2020 and Winter 2021 terms on another page.
• Moving data on cases within the residence halls to a new “Housing” tab similar to the existing “State & Regional Trends” and modifying data reporting to overall cases instead of cases for each hall.
• The Quarantine & Isolation chart also moved to appear under “Housing.”