Students who refuse to comply face code of conduct violations with penalties ranging from warnings to expulsion; effort will probably first be a sit and talk session with a student who defies the mandate to help the person better understand that the requirement is not about any individual but an effort to better protect the education community the person is a part of
The three public universities in Arizona and its largest community colleges have indicated how they will enforce the mask mandates they have imposed to protect the education community from the rapid spread of Covid-19. Failure to comply is considered a violation of the student code of conduct.
The sanctions for ignoring the mandate may range from education of a student by explaining the mandate has nothing to do with that person but its about protecting the community that the student is a part of to expulsion.
The institutions all emphasized they are not mask police. The policy is merely an application of common sense.
The mask policies are combined with encouragement for vaccinations and testing. The goal is to keep the classroom doors open.
Arizona State University will focus on encouragement, according to the article in the New Republic. “We will take steps through the student affairs process and the student code of conduct to address unwillingness to be a part of the Sun Devil community, just as we will address any other matter of conduct within the university.”
At the University of Arizona (UA), faculty can offer students a mask if they forget to bring one. If students refuse to wear a mask when offered, they should be asked to leave, according to a note sent to instructors from the University Provost. Instructors have been given an online form to use that will alert the dean of students’ office about students who violate mask rules.
According to Jessica Summers, chair of UA’s Faculty Senate and professor in the college of education, faculty members had advocated and petitioned for masks requirements in classrooms. Many were concerned about having packed classrooms without masks required, and having students get sick and then needing to return to an online semester.
Summers said: “I think there’s a sense of relief. I still think that there’s some anxiety about what is this going to look like, how hard is it going to be to enforce this requirement in classes? It hasn’t relieved all of the pressure . . . but I think it’s taken a lot of anxiety and pressure off faculty who were worried about their students getting sick, about them getting sick.”
Gary Rhoades, a professor of higher education at the University of Arizona, said faculty have “virtually uniform relief and pleasure” with the new mask requirement.
Note: Yavapai Community College is not among the institutions that have implemented a mask mandate.