Following the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s (PDPH) decision to lift the city-wide mask mandate on March 2, St. Joe’s followed suit, lifting its mask mandate, effective the next day.
Masks are now optional in all indoor or shared common spaces on campus, according to a March 2 announcement from University President Mark C. Reed, Ed.D. Masks are still required on university shuttles, which falls in line with a federal mask mandate on all public transit.
Faculty members may also choose to require students to wear masks in their classrooms, labs and offices, and students must comply with those requests, the announcement said. Students can also make this request of staff or others when meeting in private offices, according to the announcement.
James Garrow, communications director at the PDPH, said the department’s new guidance essentially asks individuals to consider masking if they are around a large crowd, have the potential to catch a severe case of covid-19, are unvaccinated or live with someone who is immunocompromised.
“Our recommendations are much more general at this point,” Garrow said. “I think that each college and university at this point is running their own risk calculus and trying to find out what’s the best fit for their particular population.”
As of March 7, St. Joe’s reported 78 cases of covid-19 since the start of the spring 2022 semester. In the same time frame, Philadelphia reported 15,400 confirmed covid cases and positivity rates for Philadelphia have hovered just above 1% in the past two weeks, according to the city’s covid-19 portal.
The Hawk asked Cary Anderson, Ed.D., associate provost and vice president of Student Life, why the university decided to lift the mandate less than 24 hours after the PDPH’s announcement.
“Our strategy throughout the pandemic has been to follow the best guidance of local and national health authorities,” wrote Gabrielle Lacherza, associate director of Public Relations, in response. “Recent announcements by both on masking guided our decision-making.”
Other Philadelphia universities are assessing their masks policies as well. For example, La Salle University still recommends masking indoors but does not require it, according to a March 4 announcement from the university. Drexel University, however, is still requiring masks indoors through March 19.
“The university made the decision based on our specific data and circumstances,” Lacherza said. “Other institutions have other circumstances, including being on spring break currently.”
Lacherza said deans, department chairs, Faculty Senate leadership and the Office of Human Resources were consulted about the decision to lift the campus-wide mandate prior to the March 2 announcement.
“We talked about it every week when we had our dean meetings,” said Joseph DiAngelo ’70, Ed.D., dean of the Erivan K. Haub School of Business. “It wasn’t a surprise.”
James Carter, Ph.D., interim dean for the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), however, said he was aware a change could be possible, but wasn’t informed about specific details regarding the mask mandate lifting.
“I knew that things were going to change at some point in the future, but I didn’t have specifics about what was going to change or when it was going to change,” Carter said. “New things are constantly being reevaluated based on new information.”
DiAngelo and Carter both added that they have been advising Haub and CAS faculty to evaluate their own masking policies at their discretion.
“We have some faculty members who have some immunosuppressant issues, so if they wanted to keep the masks on or have the students keep the masks on, then that’s perfectly fine,” DiAngelo said.
Lacherza said faculty who are struggling to enforce mask compliance should inform their school’s dean and the Office of Student Life staff, who will support them in enforcing compliance.
Garrow said the city recognizes that individuals are going to continue masking even though the mandate is lifted.
“People all are in their own different situations and have their own different risk calculus,” Garrow said. “So as people do choose to wear masks, even though the mandate is gone, that’s not a reason to belittle them or harass them.”
For DiAngelo, lifting the mask mandate helps move the university “as close to normal as we can.”
“For freshmen and sophomores who are living on campus, they have never experienced a traditional college experience,” DiAngelo said. “And so hopefully this will help a little bit and bring things back to some sense of normalcy.”
