OU announced this week it will require masks for two weeks in classes where students report positive tests, but several faculty and students reacted to the lack of policy preventing infection in the first place.
According to the newest policy, classes with positive tests reported will continue to meet in person. Students must report test results in the Healthy Together app, where they will be informed of screening results receive next steps. But, several students and faculty have reacted with concern to its limited effectiveness.
OU political science and sociology sophomore Mariah Powers said a positive case was reported in her astronomy class, and in accordance with OU’s policy, it will continue to meet in person under a mask mandate.
“I wasn’t surprised (at the positive case),” Powers said. “We have at least 120-140 students who all have to cram into a lecture hall each day. The professor asked very nicely on syllabus day and every day since for everyone to wear a mask so he can keep his family safe, but only about 20 students mask up.”
Powers said she was relieved when a mandate was enforced in her class. However, she hopes that something more can be done to prevent an exposure.
“I know OU is trying to work within the bounds of Senate Bill 658; I just wish there was more to be done,” Powers said. “A mask mandate following a positive test does very little for the people who have already been exposed. … I feel we all have a personal responsibility to mask up and get vaccinated, if able. If we work together we can create a safe environment.”
SB 658 bars certain state-funded entities — such as schools — from enforcing mask mandates for those who remain COVID-19 unvaccinated and prevents the enforcement of vaccine passports. Senior Vice President and Provost André-Denis Wright wrote this newest policy is “within the boundaries of the law” — an argument OU Law professor Joseph Thai said has no legal merit, as there’s no exception to state law that allows mask mandates when positive cases are reported.
The Oklahoma District Court issued a temporary injunction on Wednesday against the law, as the mask mandate ban applied to public schools but not private. Thai said he predicts little effect at OU, as the part of SB 658 applicable to public universities only bans mask mandates against unvaccinated students, so OU doesn’t need an injunction to require masking campus-wide.
“If OU can exercise discretion with required masking after a positive test, then surely the university can institute a universal mask mandate to help prevent people from getting sick in the first place,” OU English professor James Zeigler said. “If SB 658 doesn’t block the former, then it can’t stop the latter, either.”
While Ziegler said he hasn’t yet had a student test positive, he described his worry for those who cannot receive the vaccine, including his own child.
“The Provost’s announcement (on Aug. 30) is painfully disconnected from our scientific reality, and his slogan “Stay Positive, Test Negative” is especially galling for those of us with unvaccinated dependents,” Ziegler said. “Children under 12 are being put in harm’s way by the university’s negligence. My kid is 10.”
President Joseph Harroz said in a Wednesday State of the University address administrators will pursue classroom mask mandates as much as state law allows.
OU letters and pre-med junior Jack MacKay said he’s enrolled in three classes where students have tested positive, all of which have continued to meet in person. His largest class has 150 students with four positive cases, a class of 16 students has “multiple” cases, and his class of 67 students had “several” cases.
“I’ve been expecting cases on some level due to the lack of masks in most of my classes, but it’s still a bit scary. … I’m glad to see mandates being put in place,” MacKay said. “I really hope we get a universal indoor one, or I think we’ll end up online by Christmas.”
