An OU Law professor said though masking will be “expected” at indoor events at OU President Joseph Harroz’s inauguration, administrators are legally able to require masks, as the celebration isn’t under Gov. Kevin Stitt’s jurisdiction.
Harroz's inauguration will be a multi-event celebration from Sept. 16-17, including a reception, dinner, an inauguration ceremony, university celebration and Boyd House tours. OU intends to maintain its masking policies by encouraging attendees to wear masks at indoor inauguration events unless they are eating or drinking, a university spokesperson wrote in an email. Indoor events will take place with a limited capacity, and a livestream option will be provided for indoor events.
OU has cited Stitt's Executive Order 2021-16 and SB 658 as preventing it from requiring masks on campus. Current policy states the university “strongly encourages” masking for all individuals in high-density settings, like classrooms and special events.
EO 2021-16 prohibits state agencies from mandating masks or requiring a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of admittance to any public building. The order also requires that all buildings owned or leased by the state of Oklahoma and open to the public rescind their mask mandates to allow the public to receive government services. SB 658 does not allow certain institutions — including a board of education of a public or technology center school district and the board of regents of an institution within the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education — to mandate vaccines or enforce mask mandates for unvaccinated students against COVID-19.
Joseph Thai, the Watson Centennial Chair and an OU Presidential Professor of Law, wrote in an email he believes the question over whether state law applies to inauguration events is misleading.
"Whether inauguration events are ‘government services’ — they are not — is a red herring. The Governor's executive order, which bans mask mandates for ‘government services,’ only applies to agencies under the Governor's authority," Thai wrote, "Pursuant to the Oklahoma Constitution, OU is under the authority of the Board of Regents, not the Governor. President Harroz could require masks at his celebration events to lead on public health."
Thai also believes OU is not as restricted by the law as the university believes.
"SB 658 also does not ban OU from requiring masks across the board. Quite the opposite: it narrowly prohibits OU from requiring only the unvaccinated to mask," Thai wrote. "Indeed, at the Faculty Senate meeting, the Provost predicted that if OU were to mandate masks, the legislature would change the law to actually ban mask mandates at OU. Well, that's an implicit admission that OU legally can mandate masks but is choosing not to."
Senior Vice President and Provost André-Denis Wright said at the meeting OU administrators have no official plans to enact a new campus wide mask mandate, despite a recent injunction against SB 658.
Thai said after the injunction was issued he believed it would have little effect at OU, as it prohibits the state secretary of education from enforcing SB 658 against K-12 schools. OU does not need an injunction to require masking across the board, he added.
Thai raised further questions on OU's inaction to require testing, which has never been explicitly banned by state law.
Many colleges have used required testing to monitor COVID-19 cases. For example, the Minnesota State public college system currently requires that students living in dorms or on sports teams be vaccinated or submit to regular testing.
"Sadly, it appears that the university's laxity on masking, testing, and other proven mitigation measures against Covid may be good for politics, but it is bad for the health of our OU community," Thai said. "Aren't the health and lives of Sooners worth standing up for?"
