Face coverings will be optional at UCA beginning Monday, Feb. 28, the university announced Thursday morning. This update will remain in effect until further notice.
According to a campuswide email from President Houston Davis, this decision was made based on “trends in campus positivity rates and case numbers, local hospitalizations and campus demand for isolation housing,” and could be subject to change on a weekly and monthly basis.
According to UCA’s testing and tracing numbers, there were eight positive cases with a positivity rate of 5% on campus in the week of Feb. 17 through Feb. 23; compared with last week’s positivity rate of 12% with 22 positive cases.
Davis wrote, “COVID-19 will continue to be with us, but as previously indicated, our campus approach to COVID-19 is shifting from a public health crisis to a time of individual responsibility regarding personal health care decisions.”
The email said resources remain available on campus for testing, vaccinations, isolation spaces and masks.
If a student has any known symptoms, the medical staff in the Student Health Clinic and the Interprofessional Teaching Clinic will advise the student to wear a mask.
Davis urged the campus community to remain respectful of mask-wearing decisions. Davis wrote, “We will continue to respect the decisions of individuals on campus to wear a mask and will maintain appropriate inventories.”
Masks are available all over campus. Those in need of KN95 masks can fill out a request form at https://uca.edu/coronavirus/files/2020/07/ppe-request-form.pdf. There are also KN95 masks available in the Student Life office in the Ronnie Williams Student Center.
Davis wrote, “As has been true since February of 2020, UCA will continue to monitor and respond to changing conditions, and the programs and mechanisms we have used to respond to the pandemic will stay available to us when required.”
