Students and Staff Question Georgia Southern University's Decision to go Unmasked

     Georgia Southern University’s students and staff in Statesboro questioned the school’s choice to continue to go without a mask mandate due the effects of the COVID-19 Delta variant on both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.

A vaccine opportunity on campus. The vaccinated can choose not to wear masks.

“I think masks should be used in confined spaces without a free flow of fresh air,” Carrie Stone, RN, BSN, and House Coordinator at Northside Hospital Forsyth said. Classrooms for example do not have free flowing fresh air, and students are no longer required to wear masks as campus once required. “Unmasked students should, as a courtesy, keep their distance from others” said Stone. Students are now attending full sized classrooms which are no longer spaced out and “there is no guarantee of who is and is not vaccinated”.

An unmasked student goes on his way.

The university’s policy encourages that all unvaccinated students wear masks while on campus. Those who are vaccinated may choose not to wear masks if they do not wish to, but there has been nothing put in place to determine whether students have received the vaccine or not.  Teachers and teaching assistants, on the other hand, are expected to wear masks while conducting class. Some instructors worry about masks affecting their ability to project their voice, so they choose not to wear masks while teaching in large classrooms. History Professor Michelle Haberland, who took part in the professor mask mandate protest last month, was shocked by the lack of masks worn on campus.

“ I absolutely was,” Haberland stated when asked if she was surprised. “Especially given the high rates of transmission, I expected that masks would be required. I was very disappointed to see that the University System of Georgia was not going to follow the guidance from the CDC.”  

Professor Michelle Haberland

Regardless of the professor's efforts at the Rotunda on September 13th, Professor Haberland doesn’t expect any policy changes to satisfy their concerns.

“I wish I could say yes,” said Haberland when questioned if she had seen any changes since the protest. “But in fact, I would say it seems clear that the acting chancellor does not intend to require masks.”

Students worry about the Delta variant and other mutations of COVID-19 being spread from the vaccinated to the unvaccinated. According to the Georgia Department of Health, there have been over 60 thousand reported breakthrough cases from January 2nd to October 5th. According to the university’s reports, there has been at least one reported case on the Statesboro campus each day over the last week. 

Lauren Strickle, freshman, expressed concern over the lifted mandate.  Her confidence in  not being exposed has decreased upon learning about the Delta variant and arriving at a half-masked campus. 

“At first I thought it was fine, but then the delta variant became an issue, it worries me in the back of my mind...who knows how many people students come into contact with that do not have masks on,” Strickle said. 

She also mentioned that spaced out classes make the mask situation easier. However, with hybrid schedules no longer being enforced for most classes this year, many classes are back at full capacity. Which of course increases the possibility of student and staff exposure to the deadly virus.

President Biden's Vaccine Mandate Plan

Vanessa Ramirez · Vaccine

By: Vanessa Ramirez, Jamiya Coleman, Shakeera Hayward, and Taylor Reedy

    In an effort to get the raging pandemic under control, President Joe Biden released a new mandate that implements six main components. With many different perspectives on the plan, it calls into question on how the people, who are directly affected by this plan, feel.

    The plan's components include vaccinating the unvaccinated, furthering protection for the vaccinated, keeping schools safely open, increasing testing and requiring masking, protecting our economic recovery, and improving care for those with COVID-19.

    In addition, the plan requires vaccinations for all federal workers and for millions of contractors that do business with the Federal Government, along with requiring ​​COVID-19 vaccinations for over 17 million health care workers at Medicare and Medicaid participating hospitals and other health care settings. 

Jasmine Griggs working in her office.

 Jasmine Griggs, a COVID-19 Healthcare Facility Case Investigator at Coastal Health District under Georgia Department of Public Health, feels it doesn't affect her.

    “My job has not released any kind of statement on whether it’s going to affect us or not,” Griggs said. "I do feel like the mandate is necessary in areas where you are working with sick individuals or vulnerable populations such as a hospital or a long-term care facility.”

    The mandate applies to nursing home staff, hospital staff, individuals providing services under arrangements

volunteers, and staff who are not involved in direct patient, resident, or client care.

    The requirements that Biden came up with will apply to about 50,000 providers and covers a majority, if not all, of health care workers across the country. This mandate is in place to assure and soothe the minds of patients so they know those caring for them will be vaccinated.

    While some businesses are less lenient with adopting the mandate, others are taking it seriously … starting with things as simple as temperature checks.

Georgia Southern University Health Center.

  “We do that every day. Every day,” Tina Lee, a certified Pharmacy Technician at Georgia Southern University health center, said when asked about temperature checks. “There’s questions we have to ask or are being asked and we have to answer to. If you come in late, you still have to be screened.”

     As new plans are implemented in an effort to slow the spread of the virus, a new normal is developing.

 "Unless some serious measures are taken such as enforcing quarantine, mandating masks everywhere, unless we start taking some really serious steps, I think this could be a new sense of normal," Jasmine Griggs said.

Pfzier Vaccine.