DARTMOUTH – As of Feb. 28, wearing masks indoors will no longer be a requirement on the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth campus.
In a Feb. 18 message to the campus community, UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Mark A. Fuller said the change in health protocols aligns with the updated guidance provided by the Mass. Department of Public Health and per recommendations from the university’s pandemic emergency response team. On Feb. 9, the commonwealth announced that students and staff at public schools across the Bay State will no longer be required to wear masks while indoors starting Feb. 28.
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UMass Dartmouth, like many local colleges, implemented an indoor mask mandate at the start of the academic year regardless of vaccination status. Now, Fuller said, starting Feb. 28 those who are fully vaccinated on campus will have the option, and not be required, to wear masks indoors.
The lone exceptions on the UMass Dartmouth campus are that masks are still required in student health services, the counseling center, and while on campus shuttles and other forms of university transportation, Fuller said. Unvaccinated individuals are still required to mask up. Fuller said those who tested positive for COVID-19 will be required to wear masks for five days after their five-day isolation period, vaccinated or otherwise.
Fuller said UMass Dartmouth’s wastewater surveillance testing saw a “dramatic decrease” in the presence of COVID-19 on campus. Plus, Bristol County’s positivity rate since Jan. 28 dropped from 8.9% to 3.8% and the campus has high vaccination rates among faculty (97%) and students (95%), Fuller said.
Fuller also said UMass Dartmouth will continue to monitor the situation, receive guidance from MDPH and evaluate its safety measures “in the weeks and months ahead.”
UMass Dartmouth’s announcement came three days after all public and private colleges in the commonwealth received a letter from Mass. Education Secretary James A. Peyser and Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders that suggested colleges and universities “accelerate their efforts to transition back to ‘near-normal’ conditions,” review their mask policies and consider long-term strategies for managing an endemic. They also said colleges and universities should strengthen mental health supports for students and personnel.
UMass Dartmouth spokesperson Ryan Merrill told Providence Business News Thursday that Peyser and Sudders’ letter did not influence the university’s decision to drop the mask mandate. He said UMass Dartmouth has been following the commonwealth’s and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance throughout the pandemic and basing its on-campus protocols off of that.
UMass Dartmouth joins Stonehill College, Providence College, Roger Williams University and Bryant University as being among the few local colleges that have adjusted their on-campus mask mandates.
Bristol Community College, which has campuses in Attleboro, Fall River, New Bedford and Taunton, will lift its mask mandate if and when the community spread within Bristol County decreases to a certain threshold. Bristol Community College President Laura L. Douglas told PBN that the case counts in Bristol County needs to be 10 per 100,000 residents over a period of multiple days before the college will relax its mask mandates.
Douglas said as of Feb. 21, it was 20 cases per 100,000 in Bristol County but that count has since continued to drop. “It’s a little different for us,” Douglas said. “We look at our community and that is the best measure that we have … and that’s why we have to look at our community numbers.”
Bristol Community College, though, will bring its dining areas at all campus buildings to full capacity on Feb. 28, Douglas said. The college limited on-campus dining to just two per table.
Wheaton College in Norton did not immediately respond to requests for comment as to what adjustments, if any, the college is making with its on-campus health protocols.
(UPDATE: Subs eighth paragraph, adding comment from UMass Dartmouth. Comments from Bristol Community College added)
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.
