The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees met last week and voted on Friday to extend the mask policy on campus.
Anywhere in which social distancing is not possible, staff and students will be required to wear protective masks.
“Our mask policy has helped us start our traditional fall semester without a major spike in COVID cases,” UW President Ed Seidel said. “We appreciate the willingness of our community members to follow this policy in classrooms, labs and high-traffic areas such as the Wyoming Union so that we can continue with in-person learning and activities.”
“There are some people who don’t like to do it, some people who are happy to do it. Things are going well. Essentially, what we are hearing from a lot of students is if takes wearing a mask to be in person, that’s what they’ll do, so that is very encouraging,” Associate Vice President of Marketing and Communications Chad Baldwin said.
This decision was made after a COVID-19 information brief delivered by President Seidel on Thursday.
According to the Wyoming Department of Health, Albany County is in the “moderate-high transmission levels” category of their COVID-19 advisory guide, indicating that there is still a meaningful risk to transmit COVID-19 around the city and here on campus.
“The current masking policy we have on campus needs to be extended through the end of the fall semester,” Dean of the College of Health Sciences David Jones said. “I think our staff, faculty and our students want to have a safe teaching and learning environment.”
Currently, there are 63 active cases of COVID-19 here on campus among students and employees according to the UW Institutional Communications.
Staff senate chair Chris Maki claimed that staff reacted to the news about the policy extension mostly positively.
“There was a sense of relief amongst the majority of the staff,” Maki said. “Just relief to have this level of safety be maintained as we move forward.”
The Office for the Dean of Students could not be reached over the weekend for comment on the student side of the mask policy.
Exceptions have been made to the policy allowing for personal choice on mask use.
Voluntary public events including theater, music, athletic, and social events are being given the leeway to not expect or require masks. Alongside that, classes that require seeing the instructor’s mouth or cases involving legitimate medical reasons have been directed to seek exemptions from the University.
A new exemption added by the Trustees, this vote was for patrons of Half Acre Gym or the Wellness Center.
Students and staff will be required to wear masks in meeting rooms or service desks at those locations, but those utilizing the recreational assets of those services are being given an exemption under the new policy.
Alongside the mask mandate extension, the University continues to show support and encouragement for the COVID-19 vaccination. Both the University and Albany County are holding vaccination incentive programs for students, staff, and citizens to enter by reporting their vaccinated status on the appropriate websites.
According to Student Health, 4,282 UW students have reported being vaccinated alongside ~61% of all employees reported having at least one dose.
“We would love to see those numbers continue to increase, as vaccinations truly are the best hope for ending this pandemic,” President Seidel said.
