ASUI rejected a call for the removal of the mask mandate within select campus buildings following a spirited debate among students.
Wednesday’s meeting, which clocked in just shy of four hours, saw significant outside attendance as students sought to voice their opinion, for and against, the continuation of a mask mandate at the University of Idaho. The meeting came after the introduction of a resolution last week to remove the mask mandate from the UI campus. The amended version limits the mandate’s removal to the campus library, student union building and recreation center.
The resolution, which had been amended from its earlier version calling for a university-wide removal of the mandate, maintained its Nov. 1 deadline for the mandate’s retraction.
Though the resolution was rejected, the actual decision to remove a mask mandate from UI is a power that ultimately rests with President Scott Green. Nonetheless, Wednesday’s meeting, as is true in all ASUI meetings, ensured that everyone who wished to voice their opinion was provided the opportunity to do so.
Students on both sides of the mask mandate argument cited mental health concerns as a factor in their support or opposition of the resolution. In her remarks, Brittany Blakeley, a student and member of Kappa Alpha Theta, highlighted the positive impact that the mask mandate has had on her university experience.
“The greatest impact on my mental health and wellness in the last year has been the return of in-person interaction,” Blakeley said. “Zoom is not a viable option for replacing human interaction. I think that with the implementation of a mask-free zone in all of these public spaces, there would definitely be an increase in COVID-19 and therefore, quarantining for everyone … I quarantined. It was not fun. My mental health (tanked).”
Some students cited the removal of the campus mask mandate over the summer as being an integral factor in their decision to attend UI. When the mandate returned shortly before the start of the academic year, some felt that they were misled when making their enrollment decision with the understanding that masks would be optional on campus.
“Many current UI freshmen that I know have made the decision to attend school here largely in regards to the July 30 email from our very President Scott Green,” UI student and employee Heather Haeser said. “It was stating that all Vandals are strongly encouraged to wear a mask. Many other universities, including Washington State University, were still enforcing a mask requirement in university buildings. It was not until Aug. 11 that alterations were made (to) UI’s masks policy. This was after the majority of Greek Life students had returned to campus and students were already enrolled.”
The impact of the mask mandates on Greek housing was a concern voiced by multiple students during Wednesday’s meeting, with some feeling that the enforcement by university administrators created an environment of hostility towards campus chapters.
“It’s frustrating to find out that the university is still actively hostile to the Greek chapters on campus,” former ASUI Senator Wil Jansen van Beek said. “If you take a picture with your entire house, you should be able to post it and not get in trouble for not wearing masks.”
The newer resolution calling for stricter enforcement of the university mask mandate, which is yet to be voted on by ASUI members, included a photo from a recent UI volleyball game to illustrate the lack of mask enforcement measures on campus.
Director of Health, Safety and Wellness Abbey Rode ASUI’s Director of Health, Safety and Wellness Abbey Rode, who provided the picture and authored the enforcement resolution, asserted that there was no effort taken on her part to target any house or campus chapter, as the photo contains only “one readable t-shirt.”
“Anyone who’s under the impression that resolution (F21-14) is targeting any house is completely wrong,” Rode said. “This picture was taken by me personally … and it was simply in Memorial Gym (as students were taking a picture).”
Jeni Ball, president of Kappa Alpha Theta, said that the photo was taken “out of context” as most fans had already left the gym, and, while admitting that many of those pictured were not adhering to the mask mandate during the game, noted that there were several students who “only took off their face masks for a few seconds” as the photo was being taken.
Though the mask mandate’s effects on Greek life was a fundamental concern for many of the students who attended, the biggest grievance students had was how it was implemented. Students spoke on a lack of bodily autonomy, a sentiment made clear through the repeated use of the phrase “my body my choice,” as well as its lack of any included conditions for its eventual removal.
Sen. Tanner McClain, who authored the resolution on the mask mandate removal, highlighted the lack of a “limiting principle” as guiding his resolution.
“It has been a long time since we first heard 15 days to slow the spread,” McClain said. “That became three weeks to slow the spread, and then we can wait until the vaccine rolls out. And now we have gotten ourselves to the point where there’s no limiting principle … meaning masks forever.”
In her brief remarks on the resolution, Vice President Katie Hettinga sought to emphasize the members of the university that were underrepresented within Wednesday’s meeting: the university’s faculty and staff.
Vice President Hettinga noted that even the implementation of a limited mandate removal, as was proposed by Sen. McClain, would ultimately infringe upon faculty and staff members’ ability to navigate spaces that may be traditionally deemed as occupied primarily by students, such as the rec center and student union building. While students may feel isolated from the dangers of COVID-19 due to a lesser risk of severe illness, the reality is that the impacts of a removed mask mandate that would be felt by faculty, staff and the wider community would eventually “trickle down and affect our students.”
With the open forum session that lasted hours, multiple subjects surrounding the impacts of COVID-19 were broached, including the impacts that the virus has had on minority communities in the United States.
The discussion was spurred by statements from Jose Maciel, vice president of Movimiento Activista Social, a club dedicated to combatting issues faced by low-income members of the Hispanic and Latino communities. In his remarks, Maciel highlighted that who lives and who dies during the pandemic continues to be decided by “unjustifiable racial and economic inequalities.”
Following these comments, students and senators in the meeting’s open forum spoke against the idea that COVID-19 discriminated on the basis of skin color, background or economic status.
The Centers for Disease Control have found that a variety of institutional and socio-economic factors result in minority groups facing a disproportionate risk of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Though, there is no evidence suggesting that certain races or ethnicities are more likely to contract the virus based on biological factors.
“We know that our minority friends are disproportionately affected,” ASUI President Kallyn Mai said. “African American, Native American and Latinx populations are dying at rates much greater than others. Other systems in our country like our healthcare system and our socio-economic systems we have in place significantly decrease minority groups’ access and ability to receive adequate health care.”
The debate, which had consistently been framed by members of both sides as an evaluation of the values of liberty versus public safety, saw the value of public safety come out ahead.
The resolution calling for a limited removal of the university mask mandate failed, but only after significant considerations from the ASUI senators who listened to input from those who attended.
In a meeting that was precedent-setting for the ASUI body, the discussion was topped off with a statement on how the student body should move forward.
In her closing communications, Hettinga urged that senators not let the meeting be a “breaking point” for the administration.
“Instead of dividing yourself across what you feel to be party lines or political lines or anything like that, I invite you to continue engaging in conversation, continue to have respect for each other.”
This article was updated Oct. 28 for the full story.
Royce McCandless can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @roycemccandless