EU dropped the masks on COVID-19 protocols

For a school still requiring masks, you would think they would do a better job enforcing it. At the President’s Ball on March 5, students, staff, and guests were present; however, their masks were not. 

In the past, The Leader has reported on Elmhurst University’s masking policies, acknowledged the campus vigilance in COVID-19 guidelines, and in the last editorial we urged EU to withhold lifting the mask mandate by spring break, like they later announced in a COVID-19 Task Force email.  

However, EU dropped the ball with the President’s Ball. 

EU sent out numerous emails about the President’s Ball weeks prior, and each email stated a mask was mandatory in order to attend. Signs were posted all around the Frick Center, asking that everyone in attendance wear masks. 

Removing your mask was permitted during active eating or drinking, but that seemed to be everyone’s excuse to not wear one in the first place. This isn’t an isolated incident; it has been an issue all year. 

At the event, The Leader editors in attendance did remove their masks at moments to eat, drink, or take photos, as was permitted per the mask regulations in place at EU. 

Walking into the Founder’s Lounge reception, there were numerous faculty members and leaders of the school without a mask even on their person as they socialized with others. 

Throughout the reception, a trend amongst attendees involved guests wearing masks for photos that would be featured on any promotional EU material or The Leader, and then removing it after the camera panned away. 

It was evident that these leaders did not care about the wellbeing of their students, as they freely roamed maskless despite an active mask mandate on campus. 

It is true, COVID-19 cases have declined in the past month and the mask mandate for the state has dropped, but EU announced that the mask mandate is still intact until March 18, when the school will reconvene to announce the state of the mandate before spring break.

President’s Ball was not a well-regulated event in terms of COVID-19 safety. If a spike in campus cases occurs this upcoming week, it can be attributed to the President’s Ball. 

There were no staff members enforcing the mask-wearing policy at the President’s Ball. EU food service staff were required to wear their masks as they watched their supervisors and campus higher-ups break the rules they made for staff and students. 

In large group settings, leading by example sets the tone for the rest of the people in attendance. When students see that President Troy VanAken is maskless, they are going to follow suit and in turn diminish the credibility of his COVID-19 Task Force policies. 

Instituting policies for a campus amidst a transitional period for state mask guidelines creates a gray area. To mask or not to mask? Especially as the future of the mask mandate at EU is still to be finalized. 

Monitoring to ensure people in attendance adhered to EU guidelines would have helped mitigate the mask situation, but there were zero faculty members enforcing mask-wearing at the event. 

For a lot of students this was the first big school event since COVID-19 started nearly two years ago, and some were anxious about going to an event where they knew a lot of people would be gathering indoors. 

Masks have provided a sense of security in these uncertain times, and when surrounded by maskless individuals, this security goes away. It’s one thing to know you’re going to be in a space where you’ll be gathering in large groups, but it becomes a problem when people don’t follow the protocols everyone agreed to. 

For those who only went because they assumed it would be safely regulated, that promised security was not there.

It is a shame that an event created to celebrate student and faculty leadership was ruined because the faculty could not follow or enforce a simple rule. We are two years into this pandemic, we should know better. 

It is obvious EU is tired of mask-wearing but upholding a mask mandate that isn’t enforced at potential superspreader events is performative and indicative of leadership that does not follow their own rules. 

To everyone at EU, do better and put your masks back on.