American University’s president, Sylvia Burwell, announced on Tuesday that the university will no longer be requiring masks in indoor spaces.
Exceptions include the Student Health Center, Counseling Center, COVID-19 testing sites, AU shuttles and any AU vehicle used for public transportation.
This new protocol is set to start on Monday, March 21.
“With our vaccination rate near 99 percent and our booster rate nearing 90 percent, our AU community is highly protected and the Washington, DC region is classified as a low-risk area for transmission,” Burwell said in her statement.
This announcement came soon after Georgetown University announced their mask-optional policy on Friday, which also goes into effect on Monday, March 21.
“Our community of care remains at the heart of our approach,” noted Burwell. “If a member of our community asks others to wear a mask when they are in close contact with one another, including faculty in our classrooms and staff in our offices, please treat such requests with respect and give them full consideration.”
Comments under The Eagle’s Instagram post regarding the new policies show that students have varying opinions and are not staying silent.
The comments on this post were limited, with The Eagle’s account commenting, “The Eagle has limited comments on this post as of 7:46 p.m. due to the high volume of hate speech, racist, antisemitic and offensive comments. The Eagle does not condone this type of discourse.”
With this being said: What exactly are AU students thinking?
Many students feel grateful to have a choice in whether or not to wear a mask.
Freshman Alana Gordon was not surprised by the university’s announcement. “I feel like it was a long time coming, especially because they never lifted the KN95 mandate,” she said regarding AU’s policy that students and staff must wear KN95 masks in all indoor locations on campus.
“I was away for Spring Break and didn’t have to wear my mask where I was,” said Gordon. “It was nice to come back and realize that I’ll have that option in less than a week.”
Sophomore Ali Siddiqi had similar thoughts. “I understand why people have reservations, but there has to come a point where we follow science.”
“Most people are forgetting that masks are not forbidden on campus,” Siddiqi said. “Just because one person feels unsafe doesn’t mean everyone does, but if someone felt unsafe and asked me to wear a mask, of course I would.”
Other students are feeling unsafe due to the new mask-optional policies.
Katherine Greenstein, president of AU’s Disabled Students Union, shared their concerns about the new policies in an interview with Her Campus.
“When I heard that this was happening, I was filled with a sense of dread. Because this was a concrete step in my community telling me that me and the people I love don’t matter. That our health doesn’t matter,” they said.
“The step of taking away masks, letting this fall on individual choice, means that people are going to choose to risk my life,” said Greenstein. “That is not a choice they should be able to make.”
With an influx of people criticizing the Disabled Students Union via Instagram, the account also had to turn off its comments. Some students, however, are reaching out with support.
“I appreciate all the people reaching out to me to apologize that I’m mad and apologize that this is happening, but I want the university to go back, change their decision, guarantee hybrid access to classes, give us a mask mandate and make sure that people feel safe. That’s the bare minimum,” said Greenstein.
The Disabled Students Union will be holding a pro-mask protest along with a number of other campus organizations on Sunday, March 20 on the American University quad.
In addition to reversing the decision to drop the mask mandate, Greenstein says, “We want students to be able to come together and pledge to continue to protect each other.”
Whether or not students choose to wear a mask, many are concerned about how their peers will react.
“It does make me kind of nervous about how I’m going to be perceived by the other students here,” said Gordon.
“We’re generalizing people based on their own decision, a statement that rings true in many comment sections across social media,” Siddiqi said. “We should really emphasize being nice to one another.”