By: Liam W. Cooney | Staff Writer
“Effective at 8 a.m. Thursday, March 3, masks will be optional inside Salve Regina buildings, with a few exceptions.”
This was the highlight of the email that hit everyone’s inboxes around 2:30PM this past Wednesday, March 2. In this monumental email, the University stated the following:
“Throughout the course of this pandemic, our campus policies and operations have been carefully aligned with the latest CDC guidelines and recommendations. Late last week, the CDC released a new tool called “Community Levels,” which helps communities determine which prevention steps to take based on the latest data.
Levels can be low, medium or high and are determined by hospital beds being used, hospital admissions and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area. Given that Newport County’s community level is currently “medium” we are pleased to announce the following changes to our COVID-19 policies.”
In making this announcement, the University added that professors do still have the authority to mandate mask wearing their respective classrooms if they choose, that students should still carry ready masks at all times, and that “masks will continue to be required in medical and clinical settings such as Health Services, the asymptomatic testing site, Counseling Services and athletic training rooms.”
The email then moved on to how students/faculty/staff must remain respectful to everyone during this abrupt change, therefore remaining respectful to those who wish to continue masking up. This point needs to be made and I’m glad the school raised this issue. (Just a side note, I find it very comical that “the University” sends out these big COVID-19 updates, rather than any one individual in particular.) Anyway, I for one am thrilled, overjoyed, elated, and do believe it’s currently in our best interest to end the mask mandate on campus. I do, however, empathize with those individuals who feel more comfortable (for whatever reason) still wearing a mask in class, in the dining hall, and around others. That is completely acceptable and should be up to the individual. If people are preparing to travel, have relatives who are immunocompromised, or who are immunocompromised themselves, they may want to continue masking up.
Myself on the other hand, I’m simply ecstatic and relieved with this terrific news. I found myself staring at people today, simply because I have known some for two whole years, but have never actually seen their face. It was as if I was a curious child seeing a new person for the first time. I hope I didn’t get caught staring; it was out of pure novelty. More than anything, however, I simply found myself walking into each class smiling last Thursday, March 3, the first day of no masks, getting to greet my professors and peers with a true human-to-human hello.
It has been a long and frustrating two years (almost to the date) for many, many people, and although we can’t necessarily declare this pandemic over, this is a massive step in a return to normalcy for our campus and our Salve community, and one I feel was necessary and just for Salve students.
