Dear Students,
I hope you had a restful break. As we all return from various parts of the globe for the final weeks of Fall 2021, I am sending this email to emphasize the importance of mask-wearing to help us have a successful completion of the semester.
Due to the current outbreak in the surrounding community and interactions students had over the break, masks are a key component in keeping our University community healthy as we move into finals. Masks are also required in our buildings as part of the University’s compliance with the NYS HERO Act.
All students, faculty, staff, and campus visitors—regardless of vaccination status—are required to wear masks indoors unless otherwise authorized by policy or administrative purpose. For example, some residential quarters and some offices allow very few to no access by anyone outside their respective residents or personnel. Most of us do not enjoy wearing masks so frequently, but we do it for our community, particularly when fellow campus members, their households, or significant others have higher health risks. This is especially important now that other variants, including the virulent Omicron, were recently discovered in Africa, Europe, and, most recently, North America.
Due to close proximity to others including those with heightened health risks, students are not permitted to eat in class. Students who need to take a drink in class may remove their mask for as brief of a duration as possible to sip their beverage then immediately return their mask to properly cover both their nose and mouth.
Students who are in non-classroom spaces, including but not limited to all areas of the Student Center and ERC, may remove their masks while they are actively eating or drinking. If you are actively eating a meal, you may remove your mask until you have finished eating. If you have food and/or drink in front of you that you are occasionally consuming, you are required to be masked between bites or sips.
Masks are optional for roommates inside their own residential room, apartment, or suite. However, masks remain mandatory for all, even roommates, when present in nonresidential interior spaces.
Failure to comply with the mask mandate may result in a referral to the Office of the Dean of Students as a Code of Student Conduct violation.
Sincerely,
Jim Pittman
Dean of Students
