University of Missouri decides campus mask rules, vaccine incentives as COVID surges

All University of Missouri campuses will require masks in class this fall, regardless of vaccination status, the four schools announced Thursday as the state continues to struggle with the surge of COVID-19 cases driven by the aggressive delta variant.

The policy begins Monday, when some students at the University of Missouri - Kansas City start classes to catch up on credits. Classes begin Aug. 23 for the entire student bodies on all four campuses — Kansas City, Columbia, St. Louis and the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla.

The flagship campus in Columbia also announced it will incentivize students, faculty and staff with prizes such as tuition discounts to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The University of Kansas has recommended masking indoors for its fall semester.

The Missouri schools, which have a combined enrollment of about 70,000, will require all students and faculty to wear masks in classrooms, which will be at full capacity, and in “meeting spaces” where social distancing is not possible. The policy lasts at least until Sept. 15, when it will be reviewed, according to emails the universities sent to students, faculty and staff.

UMKC specified those spaces include libraries, laboratories and common areas in dorms.

Kansas City and St. Louis both have instituted new indoors masking requirements, following updated CDC guidance for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people to wear masks inside businesses and restaurants in areas that have been hard hit by new outbreaks.

Mizzou will be instituting a requirement for 30,000 students and thousands more staff and faculty at a time when the local health department has ruled out new mandates for the public, though it has advised mask-wearing indoors.

Students can be reported and disciplined by the university administration if they don’t comply, spokesman Christian Basi said.

Outside class and meeting spaces, unvaccinated students will be required to wear masks in all other indoor spaces on campus. For vaccinated students, it is recommended.

There are a number of exceptions.

• Unvaccinated students and staff will not have to wear a mask when in work spaces with six feet of separation from others or with physical barriers such as a cubical wall, or when they are with “small numbers of people you consistently live or work with daily (known as a stable group) including roommates, office mates or lab coworkers,” according to the email Mizzou sent to students.

• Missouri S&T and UMSTL also specified mask exceptions for those with health and disability-related accommodations, and the latter school noted a religious exemption.

The schools are asking students, faculty and staff to submit their vaccination status to track campus vaccination rates and assist with contact tracing. Those who are vaccinated and exposed to COVID do not need to quarantine and can continue attending class in person.

At MU, the submissions will also be used to enter students, staff and faculty into a program similar to the state’s monetary incentives, which are structured around a series of drawings. Prizes at Mizzou include tuition discounts, dinners with athletic team head coaches and free parking spots on campus.

Concerns over the virus in Columbia are not as dire as they are in southwest Missouri. Boone County is the state’s highest-vaccinated county, with 46% of the population having completed vaccination. But the delta variant has been detected in Boone’s wastewater since last month, and health officials have been wary of the outbreak’s spread northward along state highways.

As of Wednesday, 90 people were being treated for the virus in Boone County hospitals, though only 30 were from Boone County.

Missouri State University has said it will require students to test for COVID upon arrival and quarantine in university housing if the test is positive. It has not revived a mask policy yet. Springfield health officials have said they will not implement a new mask mandate there.

MSU and Missouri Southern State University in Joplin have already rolled out vaccine incentive programs for students with prizes such as full tuition for free, meal plans, laptops and book store gift cards.