Were you going to walk out?

No, I wouldn't have.

I don't think a walk-out is the right way to protest. First of all it risks alienating students, and it punishes them for something that's not their fault. If I were to do anything, I would have moved my classes online, but I wasn't even planning on doing that. I need to keep my job.

In any case, you might have seen, we got a literal hail mary and the university implemented a mask mandate before classes started.

My first day back went well - expect for the fact that it felt like a super-spreader event.... All of my students wore masks in the classroom, but as I walking through the super crowded hallways, I periodically spotted maskless students. Everyone I saw, I told to "mask up" and none of them were resistant to that. So having a university policy definitely helps and makes that easier.

So why a super-spreader event? Bc I have one class with 53 students. The classroom is supposed to hold 63, but I can't see how it possibly could. It was packed. When I had students discuss a question with their neighbors, it quickly got quite loud and I noticed some students seemingly unconsciously pull down their masks to talk, everyone I saw doing that quickly repositioned their masks, but I have to wonder if those unconscious movements are where masking falls short as a preventative measure.

Yes, I did see the last-minute reprieve and thought of you. The unconscious demasking is real. I've caught myself doing it and I'm as pro-mask as anyone. Sometimes you just don't realize what you're doing.

N95/KN95 work better for me in this regard because it's a tighter fit and reminds me that I'm wearing a mask for a reason. It's also harder to just slide up or down.

But that's just me. Hopefully your students will get it together.

Last year we were testing our entire student population weekly by the end. What kind of testing has your Uni maintained, or is testing out of the mix?

We were really concerned to find every case early and isolate them. I'm thinking most universities have largely given up on that.

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KN95

This is what I've been wearing. Not the most comfortable, but definitely much tighter fit!

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What kind of testing has your Uni maintained, or is testing out of the mix?

This is one thing my uni has done a really, really good job with. Weekly testing for all students, staff and faculty started in Dec. 2020 and has continued, with a brief change in policy for about two months in the summer (vaccinated peeps didn't have to test but it was also the middle of summer). This fall, students are still required to test weekly and faculty every two weeks (vaccination status irrelevant).

All buildings are controlled by key cards, and if you test positive, or you don't get tested in time, your access gets turned off. There's a whole protocol in place for quarantine and isolation as well, and it works pretty well.

Now let's see how we do with masks, and then what happens when football season starts!
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