Vaccinated students, faculty and staff members will be able to choose whether or not to wear masks in some Franklin College spaces, although mask requirements will remain in place in classrooms and labs.
College leadership loosened the requirements for people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 late Sunday, announcing the changes in an email to students. Under the new guidance, vaccinated students, faculty and staff members will be able to choose whether or not to wear a mask in indoor locations, except in labs and classrooms, dining hall serving areas, and when requested by someone in a private office or residence hall, according to the email.
Unvaccinated students will continue to have to wear masks in all indoor spaces, will continue to pay for random COVID-19 tests and fill out daily symptom checks via the CampusClear app. Students and staff members will all have to wear masks during travel together if anyone in the traveling party is unvaccinated, according to the email.
Prior to this week, students had to wear masks in all indoor spaces whether or not they were vaccinated. That changed after Johnson County went to the “yellow” color category on the Indiana Department of Health’s COVID dashboard, indicating a decreased positivity rate and number of cases, according to the email.
The “yellow” category prompted four local school districts — Clark-Pleasant, Franklin, Center Grove and Greenwood schools — to go to a mask-optional policy for all students and staff members, whether vaccinated or not. Indian Creek and Edinburgh schools were already practicing a mask-optional policy before the change.
Franklin College originally planned to make masks optional for unvaccinated students and staff members for the 2021-22 academic year, but rising COVID-19 case counts caused the school to reverse course and implement a universal mask mandate Aug. 12, before any students arrived on campus for the fall semester.
