ADMINISTRATOR RESPONSE

‘Never very serious’

Photo by Katen Adams

Following Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to ban vaccine and mask mandates, Texas A&M’s ‘Masks Strongly Encouraged’ policy is failing to sway most students to wear masks in classrooms.

Faculty believes university leaders fall short on COVID-19 prevention

By Cade Draughon

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued an executive order banning any entity in Texas from requiring vaccinations — including public universities — leaving administrative leaders the job of attempting to mitigate COVID-19 without key science-based practices that have been proven to be effective.

Texas A&M returned to full-capacity, in-person classes at the beginning of the fall semester and conducted a mandatory testing period from Aug. 23 to Sept. 10. There were 3,388 positive cases out of 79,092 tests, with a positivity rate of 4.3 percent.

Since mandatory testing ended, the university has said it will look at data surrounding community healthcare utilization, campus caseload, testing and absentee rates to determine if another mandatory testing period is necessary. Weekly hospitalization rates, number of available ICU beds and ventilators, fatalities in Texas counties, positivity rates from Curative tests on campus, test availability and absentee rates among employees, students and contract workers are the factors being analyzed.

With Abbott’s ban on mandates, the university is limited in enforcing safe practices within the classroom. Greg Hartman, vice chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and interim senior vice president, has been tasked as the COVID point person on campus by A&M President Katherine Banks. His job is to advise the president on developments and data points that go into making coronavirus policies at the university. Ultimately, it is Banks who makes the final call.

“We’re a public university here in Texas, and it’s very clear that the governor will not allow mandatory vaccinations, so that’s the law and so we need to follow the law,” Hartman said.

While the university cannot force students to wear masks in classrooms, the faculty can strongly encourage students to cover their faces by explaining why they personally want the students to do so or by offering initiaves like extra credit. It is up to the discretion of each faculty member to determine how strongly these incentives are pushed.

“In terms of allowing some incentives like that, we think it is a good idea, just like incentivizing vaccines through the giveaway of free tuition,” Hartman said, “So we’re supportive of that, and have allowed it to be at the discretion of the faculty members.”

Dale Rice, journalism professor and Speaker of the Faculty Senate, acknowledged the difficulty of enforcing safety protocols, but said he believes the university has not done enough to encourage mask-wearing.

“I understand that right now, state institutions can’t make that as a requirement,” Rice said. “But I think faculty are disappointed that the university didn’t do much more to encourage people to wear masks. I think that the university was never very serious about that, and never really under-took a major campaign to convince people that masking is critical.”

Per the A&M website, it is the responsibility of the individual to provide their own face covering. The website states that each classroom can keep a small number of disposable face coverings on hand for visitors, and many classrooms are being given masks to disperse to students.

“We provide masks in all the classrooms, so there is always a steady supply of them,” Hartman said. “So, all those things that we have been doing, we will continue to do. And I think given our limitations from the state, that [is] probably the most we can be doing.”

Editor’s Note: Lindsey Golden contributed to the article.