Mask wearing ‘optional’ at Penn State: Students in favor?
It’s early morning of Tuesday March 22, 2022. Penn State sends out an announcement that students would have the option to not wear masks in classrooms starting March 23.
This comes 19 days after Penn State announced a new mask mandate where students wouldn’t have to wear masks in social areas like the Hub or the Library, but only inside classrooms, labs and learning facilities. This is a big step, as in the beginning of the spring semester, students were required to always wear masks indoors.
On the day of the announcement, psubarstool (an Instagram page run by Penn State students where they post content related to the university) made a post which read: “Penn State has officially dropped its mask mandate. Starting tomorrow, masks will be optional in all indoor spaces on campus, except in areas where they are required by law.” The post was captioned with “FINALLY!”.
The comments were flooded by Penn State students saying stuff like “W” or “bout time”, speaking positively on the news. One student even wrote “Finally, I can get the college experience I’m paying thousands of dollars for.” But that is of course social media.
How do Penn State Students really feel about it?
Ryan Shelly (freshman-kinesiology), who had seen the post early that morning, appears to be in favor as he says he is not opposed to the school lifting the mask mandate.
“Looking forward to having some normalcy,” Shelly said. “It’s going to be weird to see people not wearing masks.”
Zachary Buzinkai (sophomore-architectural engineering) thinks “it’s pretty cool” that the mask mandate has been lifted. He believes that this is what the school should have done to begin with instead of the new mask mandate the school announced earlier this month.
“Weird that they allowed us in the dorms [without masks] but not in classrooms or in the labs,” Buzinkai said. “A little backwards, I think. It only lasted a week and a half anyway. It’s cool getting the option, but a little confused as to why they had it if it only lasted a week.”
The first few days of optional mask wearing was weird to student Laura Pendelton (sophomore-biology), as she is used to everyone wearing masks. She believes that it was time for the mask mandate to be lifted.
“I think it should be up to you if you want to be vaccinated or wear a mask,” Pendleton said. “It’s nice that we have that choice now.”
Pendleton is fully vaccinated and feels safe to attend in person classes and other places and venues without needing to wear a mask. As learning goes, she feels that not wearing masks is important, as it makes communicating with other students and professors “easier” as she can hear people more clearly and see facial expressions.
“I feel like I’m actually talking to people now,” Pendleton said. “I’m not sure how effective masks were anyway since we would wear them in class but then take them off when we went out to other places around campus.”
Does this call for a celebration? John Huntzinger (junior-business) thinks so, as he has plans with his friends this weekend to throw a party and have some fun in the wake of the news.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Huntzinger said. “I feel that we’re farther ahead now than we were when it all started. So, I mean, with the vaccines and testing I think we’re good. If people want to wear a mask, that’s cool. Do you. But I sure as hell aint.”
Inside of the Hub-Robeson center, things are looking like they did pre-covid. Maskless students are hanging around eating lunch, talking with friends, or lounging around on their phones trying to kill time in between classes. A tour comes in, with around 20 or 30 people (none of which are wearing a mask) which include future Penn State students looking around at their possible future. Their parents stand tall right beside them, looking more excited than the kids as the moms point and asks questions while the dads take pictures and check out the food court.
On the second floor, however, is peace and quiet. Away from the tours and excited parents are students who are writing on notebooks and typing frantically on laptops. Sitting in a chair is a girl who is wearing a black disposable mask, busy focusing on nothing but her homework.
Her name is Megan Waning, a freshman studying communication sciences. Even though she still wears a mask, she says she doesn’t mind the mask mandate being lifted and thinks it’s a good thing that people get a choice. The reason why she still wears a mask is for her own personal safety, as it’s what is most comfortable to her.
“I’m not as afraid,” Waning said. “It just helps me focus on my schoolwork and not have to think about it [COVID-19]”
What about professors?
The lifting of the new mask mandate has not only affected students, but professors as well.
Austin Boyle, an assistant teaching professor of economics still wears a mask while teaching. He teaches two classes that are in person which have over 100 students each. He mentioned that very few of his students are still masked.
“While I am vaccinated and boosted,” Boyle said. “And I know that the student vaccination rate is fairly high, I’m planning to run the Boston Marathon in under a month, so I don’t want to jeopardize that event with taking unnecessary risk.”
Tanya Furman, a research professor who teaches Geosciences is still wearing a mask for her Geosc 001 class (which holds 165 students). She also teaches a graduate seminar (which only holds 6 students).
Her plan when the new policy was announced was to wait to unmask in her smaller seminar class 1 week after the announcement. Which she unmasked on Tuesday March 28. For her bigger class, she will wait 2 weeks, where she plans to unmask on Wednesday April 6.
“Masking itself has not changed the way I teach,” Furman said. “It is so nice not to be on zoom that I am quite content with the masking.”
She was quick to praise her students, saying they were “wonderful” about being masked in her class until the university said it was not necessary. She went on to say that she was never frustrated with the lack of a vaccine requirement, though she was quick to get shots herself.
“I was never afraid to be in the classroom,” Furman said. “I was not among those faculty members who wanted a remote start to this semester. I think we did really well overall.”
