Aug. 11, Elizabethtown College announced through Campus News updated guidelines to best protect the community against COVID-19.
The newest guidelines required all students regardless of vaccination status to wear masks inside buildings. The changes were made in consideration of state guidelines, as well as Lancaster County becoming classified as “substantial” in the number of COVID-19 cases. A student could only be exempted from wearing a mask if they contacted Lynne Davies with a health condition.
Non-vaccinated individuals have to complete the Daily Digital Health Report (DDHR) every day, but vaccinated students do not. Along with that, vaccinated individuals will not be randomly tested.
Students used the Etown Jays app to voice their initial reactions to the change in the guidelines. Originally the plan was that vaccinated individuals would not need to wear masks at all and only non-vaccinated would.
Senior Jamie Wood finds following the guidelines to not be difficult and only a small task. She is glad there are less restrictions than previous semesters. However, she feels vaccinated students should not be required to wear masks indoors. Wood said, “I thought it was stupid everyone having to do the same thing,” when their vaccination statuses were different.
Fifth-year Brandon Roe was not surprised when the announcement was first made. “I didn’t think [the College] would be loosening mask policies. If anything, I thought they’d make them stricter,” Roe said.
Given how high numbers of COVID-19 have climbed, Roe feels the guideline is sensible. “The College made the best decision they could given the circumstances. However, they could have done better in making the decisions earlier, so it wouldn’t seem they were flip flopping it,” he said.
Roe believes that if Etown had made masks required of all students regardless of vaccination status sooner, there might have been less backlash from the student body upon the announcement. Even if students have opposing views on the policy, Roe is hopeful the students will abide. He said, “The quickest way to get rules to change is to comply,” and get the numbers down so the rules “can be changed.”
The College continues to carefully follow suggestions made by the state’s government and Center of Disease Control (CDC) to keep the Etown community safe.
