Masks are optional in classrooms unless the class is polled and it is determined that masks will be expected to be worn.” That sentence, tucked amongst a litany of fall semester updates in an email sent to the Connecticut College community this summer, introduced a new chapter of masking on campus.
This fall, masking is optional in almost every space on campus. Yet, the decision to mask has become more complicated in the classroom itself. The Dean of Students, Victor Arcelus, notified Connecticut College’s campus community of the shift in policy on Aug. 12th, 2022. The modified policy is adapted from last spring’s mandate which allowed performance and language professors to poll their classrooms to determine whether the group would mask. These classrooms would mask if one or more members of the group voted for masking.
This current semester’s approach to masking is quite similar yet allows for further flexibility on campus. While masking is required within the Student Health and Counseling Services building, students and staff must communicate individual preferences in all other regions of campus. Connecticut College’s masking protocol is determined by the College’s COVID-19 Committee. The Committee is comprised of several faculty members and administrators, including Dean Arcelus. The COVID-19 Committee meets every two weeks now. Its final decisions are informed by Hartford Healthcare’s medical advisement.
According to the present policy, each professor may provide an anonymous survey to students in order to determine whether a class will don masks. The entire class must mask if one or more individuals express wanting to instate masking in the group. Community members have also been encouraged to voice their preference for masking in environments where polling is not used, such as clubs or closed meetings, by making a verbal or written request to the group.
In classrooms, polls can be provided, at the professor’s discretion, as many times as deemed necessary throughout the semester. A poll may be re-introduced for a few reasons, including cases in which a student voices new concerns to their professor or there are shifts in medical advisement from Hartford Healthcare. According to Dean Arcelus, the option to repeat polling is meant to create space for a changing medical and social atmosphere.
Overall, as expressed by Arcelus, the aim of introducing polling campus-wide has been to create a balance between protecting the community’s mental and physical health. He acknowledged that “when you don’t get to see somebody’s full face, it has an impact on your ability to get to know each other.” Additionally, per the Dean’s message to the campus community this past August, the policy is intended to emphasize that “it is important that our campus remain mask-friendly, as many individuals may choose to wear masks in spaces where they are not required or they may ask you to wear a mask.”
Polling rolled out across campus early this September and, since then, students have been adjusting to this new element of their school environment. The College Voice conducted an anonymous survey of 97 community members, mainly students and a few professors, to gauge the campus’ response to this adjustment. 58 of these individuals indicated that they felt unfavorably toward the polling policy while 39 of them felt favorably.
The majority of individuals who felt unfavorably specified that they did not believe a full class’s masking should be determined by one person. One student elaborated on this thought stating, “I feel as though if one person in the class wants everyone else to wear masks, it is unfair to the rest of the class. If a person wants to wear a mask, they should have that choice, but if a person does not want to wear a mask, they also should have that choice.”
Conversely, those who indicated feeling favorably toward the polling system mostly indicated that they were glad to wear a mask if it made others feel more comfortable. One of these students remarked, “I don’t like having to wear a mask but I also don’t want to make the classes that I take inaccessible to people who are forced to wear masks for whatever reason.”
Moreover, several students used The College Voice’s survey to report that the wording of each poll varies from class to class. The Dean of the Faculty and Dean of the College jointly recommended polling language with professors this past summer. However, professors are allowed to conduct their surveys how they see fit. But, based on information from Arcelus, the polls are meant to be exclusively anonymous in classrooms to avoid student ostracization.
Arcelus remarked on the precarious nature of the polling system as it serves as a middle-ground between full-masking and optional or no masking. “We just felt that at this point in the pandemic, we’re trying to continue to have people feel comfortable in classroom spaces. That it was important to be able to again, make it an accessible place for everybody.”
The use of mask polling is intended to serve as a transitional policy. Arcelus pointed to Moderna and Pfizer’s bivalent booster as a potential turning point for the campus. He expressed hope that it could provide further protection to Connecticut College’s community. Arcelus described the process as having the campus move from institutional decision making, to group decision making, “and then, hopefully, in time moving back to just individual decision making.”
