BRISTOL – Roger Williams University is instituting a partial indoor mask mandate on campus for students and faculty starting Thursday until May 17, the end of the university’s spring semester exam period.
Additionally, Wheaton College in Norton on April 27 extended its full on-campus indoor mask mandate that it reimplemented last month through the end of the final exam period on May 15.
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Wheaton and RWU, like all other local colleges, rescinded their mask mandates due to a steep decline in positive cases after the Omicron outbreak over the winter. However, the new BA.2 Omicron subvariant has caused recent increases in positive cases in some areas around Rhode Island and Bristol County, Mass.
RWU Chief of Staff Brian Williams, Vice President for Student Life John King, and Provost and Senior Vice President Margaret Everett said Wednesday in a message to the campus community that the campus has seen “a significant uptick” in the number of COVID-19 cases over the last 10 days. They said last week, there were 44 student positive cases and 55 total positive cases between May 3-4 when results from close contact and symptomatic testing came to fruition.
Masks will be required for students and faculty in all classrooms and labs at both the Bristol and Providence campuses, they said. Masks are recommended, but not required, in other indoor locations on the campuses.
Williams, King and Everett said several members of RWU’s COVID operations team discussed the situation the last two days, noting it is important for students to attend final classes, projects and papers “without having to deal with COVID symptoms or isolation.”
Wheaton, though, on April 12 again required masks in all indoor settings, including offices and residence halls. Wheaton Vice President for Student Affairs Darnell Parker and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Zachary Irish said there were more than 50 positive cases reported within the student community during a week’s time, hence the need to go back to masks.
The college at the time said the mandate would run through April 27, but will be reevaluated. Irish and Parker said while the number of positive cases on campus dropped since the mask mandate was reimplemented, the college still saw “additional cases on a daily basis,” and the mandate was subsequently extended.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
