Mask-wearing politics don't have to kill
I’m a history professor, in my eleventh year at Augusta University. I did my Ph.D. at the oldest USG institution, the University of Georgia. I was born and raised in Atlanta, with family roots in Georgia that stretch back to the early 19th century. I’ve lived in Georgia for 36 of my 48 years. I’m personally very invested in the state, and I care about its future.
We had a variety of teaching configurations last school year. I taught hybrid classes, and split my sections into subsections due to social distancing requirements and class capacity restrictions. I was in the classroom every day, and though I’m a Ph.D. and not an MD, I can say unambiguously that I saw the grim ebb and flow of COVID statistics play out in the classroom with student absences, infections, weeks of sickness and the deaths of family members. The toll the pandemic took on students and their families was impossible to miss, especially in mid-winter when things were at their worst.
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The math doesn’t lie: cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are as bad as they were in January. And what are the 19 people charged with the welfare of the USG doing? Acting like everything’s back to normal. Full capacity classrooms. No mask mandate – indeed, explicit prohibitions on any USG institution president from issuing a mask mandate. This makes no sense. It’s a complete failure of leadership. It’s a disservice to the state and its young adults.
USG institutions are not private businesses. They are not set up for profit. They’re an undertaking of the state, for the public good – the idea that college education for young adults is a good thing, for the young adults’ sake and for the state’s own future. I think very, very highly of AU students. They work hard, they aspire to do well, they don’t take being in college for granted and they care about their families. The lone thing I’d critique them on is that they think – as I did when I was their age – that they’re invincible, that death is something that happens to older people. That’s never true, of course, and we know that the pandemic is sparing no one in its deadly toll. This is where adults in leadership positions serve in loco parentis – in place of the parent, caring for the young adults in their charge. The Board of Regents is shirking that basic responsibility. Instead of care and concern for the welfare of young adults, it's a laissez faire free-for-all of fend for yourselves. This is a failure of leadership and an abandonment of adult responsibility.
There’s a common sense solution to this, and it’s not a hard one. Indeed, the Board of Regents implemented it last year. There was a system-wide mask mandate. Masks, it’s clear, significantly reduce the spread of the disease. So everyone had to wear one inside a USG building. AU had two masks made for every student, staff, and faculty member, in school colors and with the school mascot. It wasn’t hard, and it wasn’t asking much. And to those who say masks are a violation of personal rights – well, right here in Georgia, we required masks all last school year, and at school year’s end, we still had our rights.
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Now the Board of Regents, it seems, is playing politics. Yes – they’re in appointed, not elected, positions. But it’s stating the obvious to note that the virus has been politicized. From “Fire Fauci” chants to a plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan to governors, including our own, going on the offensive against mask mandates, a devastating pandemic and common-sense measures to counter it have been turned into political rallying points. Politicizing what don't seem like political issues is not a new thing in our history. We’ve seen it before, and I’m sure we’ll see it again.
Playing politics in this moment is callous. The virus runs right over national boundaries, political affiliations, and the like. It’s not political. My plea to the Regents is: for the remainder of this school year, implement the most basic safety measure you implemented last year – the mask mandate. If you’re unwilling to do this, then I would invite you – urge you – to join any of my classes for the remaining 2/3 of this semester. You can relive college, perhaps refresh your memory, maybe learn some things you didn’t know. The one requirement is that you personally embody your own policy. Since masks aren’t important, you won’t wear one – even as you sit side-by-side with young adult students whose welfare, at least on paper, is your responsibility.
John Hayes is an Associate Professor of History at Augusta University.