Over two dozen MU graduate workers gathered outside the new Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building on the morning of its grand opening Tuesday to call for a reinstatement of a mask mandate on campus.
The Coalition of Graduate Workers organized the demonstration in response to MU’s decision to let the COVID-19 mask requirement expire Friday, even though surrounding schools like Columbia College and Stephens College are still requiring masks indoors.
Protesters lined up across the street wearing red T-shirts, holding up signs and chanting “Mask ‘till we’re all vaxxed” to call attention toward the safety risks on a campus where neither vaccinations nor masks are required. Their efforts were received by passing motorists honking in support, but also some passersby yelling slurs and opposition to the demonstration.
“We want to show the city, county, state and maybe even country that while we’re building a grand building dedicated to health and science, we’re not following the health and science of COVID.”Mike Olson, Coalition of Graduate Workers Outreach Officer
The outreach officer for the coalition, Mike Olson, said the goals of the building contradict the recent actions of the university in regard to public health and safety of their students and faculty.
“We want to show the city, county, state and maybe even country that while we’re building a grand building dedicated to health and science, we’re not following the health and science of COVID,” Olson said. “It’s a paradox that we’re calling attention to.”
University administration officials said last week that after weeks of deliberation and conversations with experts, they had decided against asking the curators for an extension of the previous mask policy. COVID-19 case numbers have remained low during the fall semester, and local hospitals are keeping up with COVID-19 patients.
The coalition emerged as a union back in 2015 after MU sent out an email canceling health insurance for all graduate workers within 24 hours. Affiliated with the National Education Association, the organization is dedicated to securing just compensation and dignified working conditions for the graduate workers at MU.
According to pamphlets passed out at the protest, the group views the university’s decision to let the mask mandate expire with little advance warning as “the latest in a long series of anti-graduate worker actions.”
Wyatt Gregory, a third year graduate student, expressed fear for his and colleagues’ safety as teachers who work with large classes of students.
“If students aren’t vaccinated, nothing has really changed from the height of the lockdown,” Gregory said. “If nobody’s wearing masks and unvaccinated people feel no pressure or obligation to do so, it makes it unsafe for us to work.”
