For many UO students like first-year architecture major Zachary Leonard, the beginning of spring term marked the first time they were able to see their peers and professors unmasked indoors.
“When I got back from spring break, no one was wearing a mask, and I thought ‘wow! I’ve gotta get used to this,’” Leonard said. “It’s been really nice.”
Oregon lifted its indoor mask mandate on March 12, while UO, opting to finish out the term with masks, followed a week later. The decision came just weeks after the end of the devastating surge of the Omicron variant, which propelled Oregon and Lane County to record case numbers and briefly led to certain UO classes being offered remotely during winter term. For some, masking up again during the next surge already seems inevitable.
“I’m not really wearing my mask right now, at least not until the next surge,” UO freshman Amanda Ngo, an economics major, said. “But to be honest, I’m surprised there hasn’t been a giant breakout yet.”
Ngo would prefer to keep wearing masks in lectures but feels it’s pointless when she’s already potentially exposed to others in her bubble.
“I was really diligent about masks before the mandate [ended],” Ngo said. “But I share a room with two people who don’t mask, and at this point I feel like it would just come off as virtue-signaling.”
Others are still concerned about COVID-19, even in between surges. Journalism Professor Justin Francese feels the mask mandate was lifted too soon — and worries that it could further endanger students who are vulnerable or have medically fragile relatives.
“Thinking about my classroom, when that room is full, 200 students are packed shoulder-to-shoulder. That means that on a given day, there’s a decent chance there could be one positive case,” Francese said. “I think the university could have made the decision to prolong the minor inconvenience of requiring masks in the classroom until we were sure that we were in a much safer place.”
Thus far, UO has largely followed the guidance of the Oregon Health Authority in determining its COVID-19 protocols. In a March 3 statement, UO Chief Resilience Officer Andre Le Duc noted that UO will “continue to rely on science and recommendations from the public health authority as we make decisions” — and, thus far, neither the OHA nor UO has ruled out reinstating the mandate. If that change happens, however, some might not be receptive.
“I think if you’re sick or you have symptoms, you should definitely wear a mask in the future,” Leonard said. “But I think if there’s another pandemic or another wave a lot of people will not be interested in putting them on.”
For Leonard, who is deaf and uses a cochlear implant, the end of the mask mandate has additional value. By muffling voices and obscuring the lower half of the face, masks have made it harder for him to read lips or understand others’ speech.
“Cloth masks reduce the tone in your voice, and a lot of people will be enunciating or mumbling, which can make it difficult,” Leonard said. “For deaf people who don’t have a cochlear implant, I’m sure they have been even more frustrating.”
Francese continues to wear a mask when teaching in the classroom. In doing so, he said he hopes to create a safe environment for students who also prefer to wear theirs.
“Some of the students I’ve talked to have said, you know, they still feel very uncomfortable with all of this,” Francese said. “As a professor, my goal first is to make sure that everyone who’s in the classroom feels accepted. I don’t want to create any barriers if people are uncomfortable.”
Ngo said many students have already resigned themselves to the possibility of getting sick, simply as a product of being on a large campus.
“I think at a big public college like this it’s hard to instate and maintain a mask mandate,” Ngo said. “I think the most popular sentiment floating around is ‘if we get COVID, we get COVID.’”
Masks are still required in healthcare settings, including the Health Center and for MAP testing. Free KN95 masks are available at various sites on campus.
