Face Mask Policy Details

March 4, 2022

Dear members of the SLU community,

As President Pestello announced yesterday, SLU will update its face mask policy and guidelines for our St. Louis campuses effective Monday, March 7. Our implementation of this and future changes to our COVID-19 safeguards will be approached in phases and centered on our Jesuit values.

This email includes details about: 

• Where face masks are required vs. optional
• How we put our values into action
• Why you should be vigilant about COVID-like symptoms
• How you can obtain KN95s
• What factors led to a phased approach
• What to expect next

Where face masks are required vs. optional

Beginning Monday, March 7, face mask guidelines will vary based on setting and situation. You should carry a face mask with you at all times so that you can easily adapt to the few settings where face masks are required.               

• Active instructional settings: Face masks are required in classrooms, lecture halls and labs where teaching is taking place, including when entering and exiting those spaces. This requirement makes it possible for community members who are vulnerable to severe illness to teach or attend class in an environment where the risk of COVID-19 transmission is minimized. This is one way in which we live our Jesuit values. 

• Healthcare or clinical settings where patient encounters are likely: Face masks are required in SLUCare, Student Health Center, Employee Health, University Counseling Center, Center for Counseling and Family Therapy, Psychological Services Center, Interdisciplinary Center for Autism Services, Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic, the Center for Advanced Dental Education, and COVID-19 testing and vaccination clinics.

• SLU shuttles: Face masks are required.

• Other indoor settings: Face masks are optional in residence halls, food services, academic and administrative departments, meetings and conference rooms, offices and cubicles, Simon Recreation Center, and our libraries — except when you are interacting with someone who is wearing a mask. When you engage with another person who is wearing a mask, you are expected to demonstrate cura personalis, and put on your own face mask. 

• Indoor campus events: Face masks are optional — except when the hosting organization chooses to require face masks. If the hosting group decides that face masks are required, then face masks must be worn by all attendees. When you choose to attend an event, you are choosing to comply with the event guidelines set forth by the event organizers. 

• Chaifetz Arena: Face masks are optional except when the hosting organization requires masking for attendees. Details for specific events will be posted on the Chaifetz website. 

• Commencement: We are planning for a mask-optional commencement.

How we put our values into action

As a Jesuit university, we do our work for and with others. We seek to align our actions with themes from Catholic Social Teaching, which prioritize community, the needs of the vulnerable, and respect for the dignity of each person.

There are members of our community who are vulnerable to severe COVID-19 infection, or who live with or are caring for vulnerable loved ones. In our policies and our everyday interactions, we must do what we can to respect those members of our community who have a higher need for protection from COVID-19. It’s the right thing to do.

Opportunities to live our values when it comes to face masks:

• If you’re in a space where masks are optional, you don’t have to wear a mask. However, if you want to interact with someone who is wearing a mask, please put on your mask to show care for their well-being. This is cura personalis in action.
• When you enter the office or work space of a faculty member, staff member, or student, and that person is masked, please put on your mask.
• When a facilities, maintenance, or DPS staff member enters a space to do their essential work and they are wearing a face mask, show respect for them and their work by putting on your face mask. 
• If you are simply walking past a masked individual in a hallway, or entering the same room/space as them, but you will not be engaging with them, you do not need to put on your mask.
• In general, take your cue from others who may have a higher need for safety than yourself. The onus is on the unmasked person to prioritize care for another. Demonstrate through your actions that you respect their health and well-being. 

Why you should be vigilant about COVID-like symptoms

When face masks are optional in some settings, the risk of disease transmission will increase in those settings – even when infection rates are low. 

It is more essential than ever that any individuals who have COVID-like symptoms follow these steps:

• If you live on campus, do not leave your living space. If you live off campus, do not come to campus to work or study.
• Contact Student Health (314-977-2323), Employee Health (314-257-8400), or your primary care provider so that you may be screened by a health professional who will determine if you need to be tested before coming to campus or class.
• Wait until you get the okay to return to campus or class before you do so. 

If you are unable to teach or attend class due to a positive COVID-19 test: 

• Students: All you need to tell your instructor(s) is that you have a University-approved absence. You do not have to say you are in isolation, or that you have COVID. 
• Instructors: If you are too ill to teach remotely, work with your chair and dean to find a substitute. 

How to obtain KN95s

SLU is obtaining a supply of KN95s to support our community members who wish to have a more protective mask/respirator to wear in mask-optional spaces. 

The CDC offers a helpful overview of different types of masks and respirators. The type and fit of a mask will affect the level of protection it provides. In general, a tight-fitting surgical mask or KN95 respirator will provide greater protection than a cloth mask, and N95 respirators provide the highest level of protection. 

If you would like to request a KN95, please email pandemic@slu.edu. 

Factors that led to a phased approach to relaxing guidelines

Face masks have become an emotionally charged and divisive issue. We heard extensive feedback from the community, including more than 7,000 survey responses. As you can imagine, a broad range of perspectives was represented. 

In the end, the decision to take a phased approach was grounded in consensus science, an analysis of campus data, input from the campus community, and our University’s values.

These factors made it possible to loosen restrictions to some degree:

• Our campus positivity rate has fallen dramatically, to just 0.6% this past week. We have a low rate of infection on campus. 
• The infection and hospitalization rates in the St. Louis region continue to fall. The CDC and local health officials have updated their face mask guidance accordingly. 
• We have taken a layered approach to risk mitigation, which includes a highly vaccinated population that has also received booster doses. This dramatically lowers the risk of severe illness among our community.
• We have a solid program of symptomatic and random sample asymptomatic surveillance testing in place, which will allow us to identify and respond to infection trends or clusters that may emerge.

These factors demonstrated that it was beneficial to take a phased approach to relaxing face mask requirements:

• Evidence, including our own campus data, shows that universal masking is effective at preventing or greatly limiting disease spread. And though infection rates are currently low, the risk of infection and severe illness is not zero, especially among our high-risk community members. Keeping required masking in active instructional settings for the next few weeks allows us to monitor the safety of loosening mask use on campus, as we protect our most vulnerable community members who also must adjust to the absence of face mask requirements in the communities in which they live.
• Using a phased approach to loosening COVID-19 restrictions was expressed by many as the preferred approach. Many community members expressed concern over possible rises in campus infection rates following spring break and the Easter holiday. Our current approach allows us to monitor for increases in infection rates during each phase. This approach also allows us to ease into change and mitigate as much anxiety resulting from those changes as possible. 

What to expect next

These guidelines constitute the first phase in what will be a series of updated face mask and COVID-19 guidelines. We anticipate that this first phase of updated face mask guidelines will continue from March 7 - March 27.  

• We will carefully monitor campus infection rates through symptomatic and random sample asymptomatic surveillance testing. 
• We will also continue to monitor local rates of COVID-19 infection and hospitalizations. 
• We will also continue to monitor the pandemic epidemiology regarding new variants.

If conditions change before March 27, we will consider adjusting the masking policy before then. Otherwise, we will announce whether we will continue with the current plan or progress to the next phase of loosening COVID-19 restrictions beginning March 28. 

Stay tuned for additional information that will be shared soon about other COVID protocols that may be loosened, including our policy on internal and external events. 

Thank you for your continued goodwill and commitment to our community. 

Stay safe and be well.

Terri Rebmann, Ph.D., RN, CIC, FAPIC
Special Assistant to the President
Director, Institute for Biosecurity
Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics
College for Public Health & Social Justice