Dear Barnard Community,

We are pleased to inform you about an additional vaccination site for members of the Barnard Community. Remember that as of this week, anyone ages 16 and over who works, lives, or studies in New York State is eligible for vaccination in New York.

In addition to pharmacies and other city- and state-run vaccine sites, Barnard students, faculty, and staff can now also schedule appointments at a Columbia-operated vaccination site. We are sharing a message from Columbia Health below this message that details how to register with their site and provides answers to some anticipated questions. 

Appointments at Columbia are limited. We strongly encourage members of the Barnard community to be vaccinated as soon as possible, and not wait for an appointment at any particular location.

At this time there is not a single website that aggregates all available local appointments.

If you haven’t yet, please fill out or update the College’s survey. Through the survey you can voluntarily share or update your vaccine status, and you can opt in to receive information about future boosters and vaccines from Barnard’s vaccine distribution partners, including Columbia Health. Please send any questions to vaccine@barnard.edu. 

Sincerely,

Andrea Stagg
Deputy General Counsel and
Director of Government Relations and Compliance and Chair of the Barnard Vaccine Working Group

MJ Murphy
Executive Director of Student Health and Wellness Programs

Below is the message from Columbia Health


We are writing today to provide an update on vaccines for students, faculty, and staff to be administered by our partners in Columbia Health.   

Registering Your Eligibility for the Columbia Health Vaccine Sites

If you have not yet been vaccinated there are two key steps to take as we prepare for the start of vaccine administration in Lerner Hall on the Columbia Morningside campus. If you believe you are eligible, please use the online eligibility and registration form to check and provide initial details that will allow Columbia Health to contact those that meet current New York State criteria. Once you’ve completed the form, please visit the MyConnect site to ensure you’ve got an account set up (be sure to include your full address and insurance information to meet NY requirements; use the help tools as needed). Setting up your profile ahead of time will help ensure a faster and smoother vaccine visit. Columbia Health will use your responses to schedule appointments and reach out via email based on your responses.  

Key Questions

  • We know you may have questions. Here are a few items to help address some the most common:
  • Columbia Health could receive any of the three currently available vaccine options. If you are vaccinated at a Columbia site, you cannot select which vaccine you receive. The best option is to receive any approved vaccine when you become eligible.
  • We do not know how many doses we will receive each week. Columbia Health will not schedule more people that the number of doses we expect to receive.
  • Eligibility is determined by the state. Columbia Health cannot override state requirements.
  • If you start a 2-dose vaccine process elsewhere, we cannot give you the second dose.
  • If you start a 2-dose vaccine with us, when you receive dose one you must commit to being available in 3-4 weeks to receive dose 2.
  • While you will have to provide insurance information, there will be no out-of-pocket costs to you for receiving the vaccine from us.
  • Please don’t call or email us. Scheduling is only by outreach from the Columbia Health team based on eligibility form completion.
  • You can still pursue vaccines at other locations. Just remember to cancel any duplicate appointments with us or other sites when you begin the vaccine process so that those slots can be given to others.

Of course, until we are truly on the other side of the pandemic we ask that, even if you are already vaccinated, continue to wear your face covering, keep your physical distance, regularly wash/sanitize your hands, limit travel to emergency needs only, and keep up with regular testing.   

The Barnard and Columbia Health teams are excited to begin this next phase in supporting our collective health and well-being. We thank you for being an active participant.