More than 88% of University of Maine System employees, including both full- and part-time, already meet the federal requirements to prove either vaccination or a medical or religious exemption.
Orono, Maine — The University of Maine System (UMS) has updated its employee vaccination requirements to comply with President Biden’s Executive Order 14042: Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors. The new university guidance has been posted under the employee tab at on the Together for Maine website.
UMS, including all of its universities and Maine Law, is a federal contractor. UMS benefits from hundreds-of-millions of dollars in federal contracts and in support of its mission and students annually.
The FY 2020 schedule of federal expenditures for the system totaled nearly $280 million (PDF).
The Executive Order guidance (External PDF) requires that employees of a federal contractor must be either fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or seek a legally recognized exemption from vaccination for medical reasons or a sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance. The deadline for full compliance is Dec. 8, 2021.
UMS’s legal review has also determined that the federal guidance applies to all full- and part-time UMS employees, including student employees and faculty and staff who work remotely.
In his Oct. 28 message to the university community (External site), Chancellor Dannel Malloy noted the remarkable success of the UMS vaccination efforts and the mission-critical importance of maintaining eligibility for federal grants and contracts.
About the University of Maine System
Established in 1968, the University of Maine System (UMS) unites Maine’s distinctive public universities, comprising 10 campuses and numerous centers, in the common purpose of providing quality higher education while delivering on its traditional tripartite mission of teaching, research, and public service.
In 2020 UMS became the first and only statewide enterprise of public higher education in the country to transition to a unified accreditation for the system. Much different than a merger or consolidation, unified accreditation is a new operating model for the University of Maine System that removes the primary barrier to inter-institutional collaboration.
A comprehensive public institution of higher education, UMS serves more than 30,000 students annually and is supported by the efforts of more than 2,000 full-time and part-time faculty, more than 3,000 regular full-time and part-time staff, and a complement of part-time temporary (adjunct) faculty.
Reaching more than 500,000 people annually through educational and cultural offerings, the University of Maine System also benefits from more than two-thirds of its alumni population residing within the state; more than 123,000 individuals.
The System consists of seven main campuses: The University of Maine (UMaine), including its regional campus the University of Maine at Machias (UMM); the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA); the University of Maine at Farmington (UMF); the University of Maine at Fort Kent (UMFK), the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI); and the University of Southern Maine (USM). The System also includes a UMA campus in Bangor, USM campuses in Gorham and Lewiston-Auburn, the University of Maine School of Law, and the University of Maine Graduate and Professional Center.
Please follow these links to the UMS Logo (Image download), UMS and individual university style guides and an image and biographical information for Chancellor Malloy.
