On August 5, President Crawford announced that Miami University would be implementing a series of public health measures in the upcoming semester to prevent the spread of COVID-19, specifically the new delta variant. Among these measures are mask requirements regardless of vaccination status and mandatory testing for unvaccinated students.
This news has justifiably caused an uproar among a significant portion of the student population. We would like to formally add our voice to the opposition to these restrictions and to state our support for efforts to end these mandates. Furthermore, we denounce the shaming of conservatives at Miami over their reaction to this issue considering that the vaccination rates on campus are currently unknown, so this is not an issue of too few people being vaccinated, and the fact that concern over vaccines is a bipartisan issue.
For over a year, we followed the guidelines of the university and state government officials, believing the crisis would end if we did as we were instructed. However, the goalposts have continued to shift and our leaders continue to be held unaccountable. We oppose these latest restrictions and call on the university to remove them for the following reasons:
They Are Unnecessary
COVID can be contracted by college students, but the risk of hospitalization and death for our age group is significantly lower than the risk for older age demographics. It is also worth remembering that COVID ran rampant on campus last year in spite of serious restrictions, yet there were no fatalities among the student body. The goal of any reasonable COVID policy should be to protect the most vulnerable populations to reduce hospitalizations and deaths while allowing those with lower risk to live their lives. At our university, there is no need for severe public health guidelines, especially when there is no precedent for such extensive measures being taken to halt the spread of other diseases and when the overwhelming majority of the student population does not face a serious threat from the virus. Those who are still vulnerable can choose to take necessary precautions and wear a mask to protect themselves without requiring others to do the same.
They Are Contradictory
Vaccines to respond to the COVID crisis were rushed out in record time and are available to anyone who wants one. Within the email announcing the mandates, Crawford stated, “Vaccines remain our best protective measure against the virus.” However, if the goal is to get as many students vaccinated as possible, the mask mandate undermines that goal. If students are forced to abide by the same restrictions regardless of their vaccination status, it removes a key incentive to get the vaccine. Furthermore, requiring masks for vaccinated students is likely to decrease trust in the vaccine. If the vaccine is effective, as the evidence indicates it is, there is no need for masks as vaccinated students should already be protected from the virus, even in the presence of unvaccinated students. Seeing that many have already received the vaccine, encouraging others to get vaccinated, but then requiring masks anyway is a self-defeating method of handling COVID.
They Restrict Personal Freedom and Discourage Responsibility
One of the most important aspects of the college experience is learning personal responsibility, which students learn as they live on their own and take control of their own education. Personal responsibility cannot be learned without personal freedom. While there must be limits to personal freedom to protect others, decisions regarding a student’s individual health should be their personal decision. We have always had disease and we always will, but never before have we forced everyone to cover up their faces for months on end to prevent its spread. It is even more unreasonable to demand this of a group that, for the most part, does not face a serious threat from the virus compared to other age groups. Those who have a greater concern regarding the virus should be given the freedom and the resources to protect themselves while those who are not as concerned should be given the freedom to return to normal life.
These restrictions are beyond disappointing and inconvenient. They are overbearing and absurd. Irrational decision-making based on political popularity and social pressure instead of common sense only undermines students’ trust in the university. Reducing the spread of COVID and returning to normal are not mutually exclusive goals. However, the aim of these restrictions appears to be to eliminate the virus entirely, which is an unrealistic goal. Rather than allowing students to decide the amount of risk they are willing to bear and guard themselves against the virus accordingly, Miami has chosen to micromanage the personal health of students even though the threat of the virus is significantly less than it was last year. The return to normal living and learning at Miami University is long overdue. For that reason, the editorial board of the Miami Patriot calls on Miami to repeal this latest round of mandates.
The Miami Patriot Editorial Board
Theo DeRosa
Alli Lowe
Corie Maurer
Johnny Giroux
Charlotte Waldron
Steve Tarzian