In real time, The Daily Pennsylvanian is tracking the fall 2021 vaccine requirement policies at over 200 U.S. colleges across each of the 50 states.

The move marks the first time in well over a year that students, faculty, and staff will not be required to wear a mask indoors at Penn, a monumental step towards Penn's plan of holding a fully in-person, on-campus fall semester.

Several students remain concerned about the enforcement of new mask-wearing regulations and the impact they will have on the West Philadelphia community.

After taking a year away from school, many of these now members of the Class of 2025 said they are optimistic about the upcoming semester. 

Students are concerned the vaccine mandate could force international students to move to the United States earlier and cause them to miss New Student Orientation activities and in-person classes.

The three winning teams were awarded grants of up to $100,000 to implement projects that address eradicating or reducing racism, achieving educational equity, or reducing health disparities. 

The changes, which took effect on June 2, come as positive cases of the novel coronavirus have plunged to the lowest level in the city since fall 2020.

All offices, conference rooms, classrooms, and labs are available to use at full capacity, and PennOpen Pass will no longer be used to enter buildings.

The study found that the labor productivity of children who participated in online learning due to COVID-19 school closures decreased. 

Together for West Philadelphia, a health equity nonprofit, gifted $72,000 to the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium to provide free COVID-19 tests and vaccines to communities most impacted by the pandemic.

Penn is the fourth Ivy League institution — following Brown, Columbia, and Yale — to require that its employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

A recent study on the RAPID test developed by a team at Penn Medicine found that it can detect COVID-19 within four minutes.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System is one of the first health systems in the country to require all of its employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

The eight institutions are all planning to resume in-person learning for fall 2021, and are also preparing to potentially implement a number of health and safety measures.

Both the City of Philadelphia and Penn will still require that masks are worn indoors until at least June 11, when the city plans to reevaluate the policy.

Professors and students attributed the largely stable ratings to the resilience of the Penn community and creative measures faculty members took to move their coursework online. 

The updated guidelines remove restrictions on Penn-affiliated travel, allow departments to host visitors on campus, and permit the use of on-campus spaces.