By JORDAN GREEN, Editor-in-Chief
Northwestern officials are encouraging students and staff to be immunized against COVID-19, saying some coronavirus restrictions could be reinstituted if active case numbers climb.
“I can’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ at this point,” said Calleb Mosburg, the university’s dean of student affairs. “There’s always a possibility that it could happen. I think that, if we continue to make the right decisions and be responsible … we’re on track to be able to have a full academic year without having to re-implement these things.”
Students across the nation returned to class in August for the second time during the pandemic, but as the highly contagious delta variant spreads, education leaders are weighing safety measures to stop the virus from sweeping through schools.
Northwestern joined other schools and universities when it switched to distance learning at the start of the pandemic in 2020. Students returned to class in August 2020 with mask mandates and dormitory visitation restrictions in place for the school year.
Those rules were lifted before the start of the 2021 – 2022 school year at Northwestern, but masking remains optional for students and employees.
Mosburg didn’t say whether a specific number of active cases would trigger a return to previous rules.
“I continue to come back to stressing vaccination,” Mosburg said. “I want to give us every opportunity that we can to be able to stay on campus, not have to have masks on, to move back to normal.”
While pandemic rules were repealed campus-wide, the changes were particularly notable in the university’s dormitories, said Matt Adair, the university’s housing director. In the last school year, students were required to wear masks any time they were outside their dorm rooms, and visitation was limited.
Those rules are gone, and “we are happy to be smiling at each other in the hallways again,” Adair said.
Some coronavirus safety restrictions could be more challenging to revive than others.
Senate Bill 658, which the state legislature passed this year, bars public schools from implementing mask mandates unless Gov. Kevin Stitt issues an emergency declaration for the area the school is in.
Stitt has said repeatedly he won’t issue a declaration. Instead, he’s promoted the vaccine as being safe and effective and continues to say that masking is a matter of personal responsibility.
Some Oklahoma public schools, however, already have implemented mask mandates that appear to be in conflict with state law as the virus spreads in their districts.
“Any decision like that would be consulted with our legal team,” Mosburg said. “Right now, I’m not going to say ‘yes,’ or I’m not going to say ‘no,’ but I think there’s going to have to be definitely some legal consult that would happen if that decision ever came into the realm of possibility.”
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Students who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 or who have symptoms of the virus themselves should self-quarantine and notify the Student Services office, Mosburg said.
“If they start developing symptoms, then don’t come to class, but communicate with your faculty, communicate with my office here,” Mosburg said.
The university will work with students who have the virus on a “case-by-case basis,” Mosburg said.
“Some instructors may have Zoom access or have a virtual option for them,” Mosburg said. “The biggest thing is communication between the student and the instructor.
“Our faculty do a great job of working with students.”
The university is no longer performing its own contact tracing, Mosburg said. That work will be left up to local health officials, including the county health department.
University officials continue to monitor local coronavirus data, Mosburg said.
“I think, this year, we’re moving forward, and people are doing so responsibly,” Mosburg said. “A great way of moving forward is to get the vaccine if you can.”