Results of campus survey on COVID-19

Last week, to strengthen our understanding of our specific situation as it relates to Covid-19, a survey was sent out asking the university community to anonymously share vaccination status and concerns with returning to campus, if any.

11,426 members of our community responded to this survey.

The survey reveals a high level of vaccination among respondents. 93.6% of respondents are fully vaccinated or plan to be vaccinated before the start of the fall term. 87.9% report already being fully vaccinated. This includes:

• 92.8% of faculty and staff are fully vaccinated, with an additional 3.0% planning to be vaccinated by the start of the fall semester.
• 84.8% of students are fully vaccinated, with an additional 7.5% planning to be vaccinated by the start of the fall semester.

There are limitations to opt-in surveys of this nature and care must be taken not to over-interpret results. Nonetheless, this specific UCalgary snapshot is consistent with more rigourously gathered, generalized data on vaccination rates:

• The City of Calgary has a rate of full vaccination 10 points above the rest of the province.
• In Calgary 74.6% of individuals aged 20-39 are fully or partially vaccinated.
• University education is correlated with higher vaccine uptake.

Taken together, these data suggest the University of Calgary enjoys a very high level of vaccination. This is worth celebrating – as President McCauley wrote last week, the single most important thing you can do to protect yourself and those around you is getting vaccinated.

The community survey also revealed anxieties about returning to campus:

• 56.3% of respondents were concerned they will get Covid-19 at the University of Calgary and transmit it home to their family.
• 55.7% of respondents were concerned that insufficient measures are in place on campus to protect the University community.
• 38.6% of respondents were concerned that they would get Covid-19 at the University of Calgary and get very sick.

For those who wish to perform their own analysis, survey results can be downloaded in CSV format here.

While heartened by the high level of vaccination, the next step is to now address the concerns expressed by the community.

In the next 48 hours we will be announcing new health and safety measures. In the meantime, if you are among those who have not yet been vaccinated, I’d ask that you consider doing so. Many pharmacies, including the pharmacy in the MacEwan Student Centre are taking walk-in appointments. Vaccines work. They provide effective protection against all known variants of Covid-19 and we emphatically support their value and importance.

Thank you,

Teri Balser
Provost and Vice-President (Academic)