This unnecessary and half measured reversal appears to be more pointless Covid theater for students.
This unnecessary and half measured reversal appears to be more pointless Covid theater for students.
L ike many college students, I have been hoping that this would be the year my education could finally leave Covid-19 behind. When I wrote earlier this year about my university’s response to the virus, I suggested that Georgetown University should issue a partial tuition refund as a recompense for the indisputably inferior virtual classes we had been forced to accept at normal cost. I also said that the university should lift its mask mandate. While no partial refund has been forthcoming, Georgetown did eventually lift its mask mandate, beginning on March 21. Not quite three weeks of mask-optional learning went by in which the university appeared to be getting back to normal. The Georgetown Institute of Politics hosted a large event featuring Representative Adam Kinzinger (R., Ill.) on April 5. On that same day, the Georgetown Walsh School of Foreign Service Instagram account posted pictures of university officials with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) at a Nashville event with masks absent. All of this was something to celebrate, given that 98 percent of Georgetown students and faculty are vaccinated.
And yet, on April 6, the Georgetown community received an email from the university reinstituting the indoor mask mandate, effective the next day. The email explained that this was because of a “significant increase in Covid-19 cases on the Main Campus and Medical Center campuses this week, particularly among undergraduate students.” The mask mandate has not been reinstated on the Georgetown Law Center campus, which has not seen a comparable rise of cases. These are private mandates, as the D.C. government lifted its indoor mask mandate on most public spaces beginning on March 1.
Georgetown policy requires students with Covid-19 to isolate in the Georgetown hotel for five days. Some in the Georgetown community have worried that, given the increase in Covid-19 cases, the hotel will no longer have space for students to isolate. However, the university has not chosen to reimplement virtual classes, which would presumably lower cases even more than the mask mandate. No doubt, some students would prefer to Zoom into class maskless than be forced to wear one in a hot classroom for a two-and-a-half-hour lecture in one of Georgetown’s poorly air-conditioned rooms.
It is worth noting that Covid-19 does not appear to be causing major health crises for members of the Georgetown community. In the email announcing the new mask mandate, Georgetown’s chief public-health officer noted that “thankfully, with the vast majority of our community up to date on vaccination, we are not seeing cases involving severe illness.”
Some students responded to the new mandate by protesting on the front steps of Georgetown’s flagship building, Healy Hall, and in front of the president’s office. One protester’s sign read “follow CDC guidelines.” The CDC recommends masking be left to individual personal preference in places with a low community level of Covid-19. The current Covid-19 community level for D.C. is designated as low. Dr. Anthony Fauci made headlines after his interview last Sunday where he said, “This is not going to be eradicated and it’s not going to be eliminated. What’s going to happen is that we’re going to see that each individual is going to have to make their calculation of the amount of risk that they want to take in.” Another student held a sign which said, “We deserve a normal education.” Georgetown was completely virtual in April and May 2020, the 2020–21 academic year, and January 12–30, 2022. The university cited “the surge in cases associated with the Omicron variant in the United States” as a reason that students could not have in-person classes in January. Students were charged for room and board regardless of whether they returned to campus during that time. When the university has been in-person, students have faced restrictions such as a ban on water in the library, the shutting down of the university gym, and the limitation of indoor dining.
I would implore the Georgetown administration to rethink the mask mandate, and embrace the university’s motto cura personalis, or care of the whole person. Those who want to mask are still able, but those who pose little to no risk to themselves or their peers should be allowed to resume their lives like we have done for these past few weeks.