Dear President Percy, Provost Jeffords, and PSU Incident Management Team,
We have heard from many adjunct faculty members and students who are deeply disappointed in PSU’s decision to lift all mask mandates in spring term. If PSU’s administration chooses to go forward without a schoolwide mask mandate for spring quarter, then we ask that you allow faculty to make their own mask policy for their classes, and for PSU to support faculty to implement those policies by communicating to students that some classes will require masks and that the school will enforce each faculty’s mask policy.
We also recommend that students be able to ask for DRC accommodations that include a mask mandate for the classes they are enrolled in.
More than a quarter of PSU classes are taught by adjuncts (34%), many of whom still do not have access to adequate healthcare. By removing the mask mandate, you are expecting these faculty to take on health risks of acute or lingering disease and disability in the course of doing their jobs without any kind of healthcare support.
Several parts of the world, including China, are beginning to see a new wave of COVID-19. New York City and other parts of the country are seeing huge increases in the rate of the BA.2 variant of the virus in their tests of sewage. Let us not be rash about declaring the pandemic over prematurely, yet one more time, at the expense of the health of our students and workers.
We must make sure we are taking into consideration the very real ongoing risks that COVID-19 poses to our community, especially our more vulnerable members including those of us who are immunocompromised and those without access to adequate healthcare.
Sincerely,
Ariana Jacob on behalf of PSUFA Executive Council
References on increases of new COVID-19 variants: