Dear MSCA Librarians and Faculty,

While preK-12 educators are appropriately included in Phase 2 of Governor Baker’s vaccination rollout plan, higher education faculty and staff are currently not part of any priority phase for COVID-19 vaccination distribution in Massachusetts. Thirty two (32) states have, in fact, prioritized higher education employees for vaccination, understanding that higher education faces the same, if not higher, risk of contracting COVID. Changing the COVID-19 vaccination schedule to include higher education employees in Phase 2 would also align our state rollout plan with the recent recommendations from the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. As such, it is important that all higher education employees (faculty, librarians and staff) be granted access to the vaccines during Phase 2 of the vaccination plan. Please take 1 minute to sign the letter urging Governor Baker to:

• Make the COVID-19 vaccines available to higher education employees at the same time it is made available to preK-12 educators.
• Use public college and university campuses as community sites for administering the vaccines shots, making it safer and more efficient to provide the vaccines.

Action Network Link:  https://actionnetwork.org/letters/make-vaccinations-available-to-higher-education-workers/

Our MSCA union, in partnership with other higher ed unions and the MTA are planning a series of actions to put pressure on the governor to have public higher education employees included in Phase 2 of the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines. A social media campaign will be upcoming. It is imperative we gather as many signatures as possible before Thursday, Jan 28^th in anticipation of an important meeting with Secretary Marylou Sudders discussing priorities for the vaccination dissemination. So please click here to sign the letter and help us keep our members safe. Our members’ activism has in recent months led to some significant legislative victories for our union.

Together, we can once again make a difference!

In solidarity,
Irina Seceleanu & Aruna Krishnamurthy,
Organizing and Unity Leaders

Chris Gullen,
Webmaster

CJ O’Donnell,
MSCA President