Augustana University to require masks this fall for all students

Hope the Augustana U kids all kept their masks after last Spring. Because they’re going to need them again according to the e-mail that went out today from AU president Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin to the University’s students:

“Based on CDC’s updated guidance, as Minnehaha and Lincoln counties are currently experiencing high community spread of the virus based on test positivity rates, Augustana will require everyone to wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status. This indoor masking protocol is effective August 16 until further notice.”

I have this strange sense of deja-vu..

It might just be a very long school year.

13 thoughts on “Augustana University to require masks this fall for all students”

    1. Since when? Since when is requiring a mask be worn during a pandemic some violation of individual rights? We are talking about the balancing of human rights. You do not have a right to infect others. What are you talking about?

      In the past, we have required hundreds of thousands of young men to defend their country with their lives. They were drafted with or without their consent. But you… you can’t temporarily put on a little mask to protect your fellow Americans? Pathetic.

      1. Of course you might say that the soldier fought for our freedom. Yes, he sure did. But no freedom is absolute. There is the saying that some attribute to Lincoln. “My right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins.”

        Should your right to refuse a mask take precedence over your neighbor’s right to life? I don’t think so.

          1. Uh huh.

            We are experimenting with your method of refusing masks and avoiding vaccines right now… in Texas and Florida. These governors who want to be president are filling up their hospitals with patients.

            It’s coming for us next, South Dakota. Ignore medical advice at your own peril. Without a vaccine or at least a mask, you have a good chance of finding out the hard way.

            I do not know how long natural immunity lasts. It will protect some of you but watch out. A month from now, it won’t be pretty.

            Deja vu.

    1. It’s thinking like that which has gotten us to this point.

      What are the odds? The 15 states with the highest new Covid case rates right now are… red states. Republican.

      All of them.

  1. If we can fight mask bans, then lets also fight TSA checkpoints before flying. They are nothing but a visual deterrent, it’s fake security. The machines can be hacked to see people naked, they are connected to a network.

  2. I appreciate they announced this before the students showed up and their isn’t a “bait-and-switch” after they had the students money.

    Augie is free to have whatever policies they think best and students are free to react.

    Few dispute vaccinations are the key to both near-term and long-term success. My question is, since vaccinated students and unvaccinated students both are required to wear masks, does this policy encourage the unvaccinated to become vaccinated?

  3. So thankful to hear this. It is wise to require vaccinations for registration as well to keep our youth healthy as possible. Numbers of COVID cases are rising considerably. Like polio, smallpox, diphtheria, etc., only way to stop the suffering is through vaccines.

  4. If my kid were going to Augie, I’d urge an immediate transfer. Glad to see our state universities have better sense than this.

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