Citing COVID numbers, Keene State institutes temporary mask requirement

Keene State students are wearing masks in class for at least two weeks after the requirement was reinstated following a rise in COVID numbers, while protocol at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge remains unchanged.

Effective this past Thursday, masks must be worn in classroom areas at Keene State, college President Melinda Treadwell announced Wednesday in a message distributed through the campus email system and later posted online. Plans call for the rule to expire Sept. 22 depending on transmission rates.

Instructional and support staff in the college's Child Development Center are also required to wear masks, though there are no changes to Keene State's operational model, Treadwell said. Those visiting the campus Wellness Center must wear masks per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requirements, though this rule was in place from the start of the semester.

"While we would all like to think COVID is a thing of the past, we are continually reminded it is still with us," Treadwell said in the announcement. "Before we returned for the fall semester, the wastewater in the area showed an increase in COVID-19. In the past week, we have experienced an increase in reported cases of COVID-19 at Keene State."

The college did not have any data on current COVID numbers viewable online and is not conducting random sampling surveillance testing. Keene State opened its COVID testing center at 115 Winchester St. on Aug. 29, which Treadwell encouraged those on campus feeling unwell to visit. The center is open Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and offers tests on site as well as at-home testing kits.

"Keene State College is experiencing what we have over the past several years of return to community," Treadwell said. "What is different is that COVID is not an unknown risk for us this semester."

She added that the college provides free masks in all its buildings on campus.

Additional information about how Keene State determined it necessary to reinstate masks was not immediately available from the college on Monday afternoon.

At Franklin Pierce University's campus in Rindge, masking rules are decided classroom by classroom, with faculty authorized to require students to wear them, according to Franklin Pierce's fall 2022 semester COVID protocols. However, no blanket mandate is in place.

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Kathryn Grosso Gann, Franklin Pierce's director of communications, said in an email response to questions Monday that the university will randomly select students to be tested for COVID-19 throughout the semester. Testing will be done in periods that might be considered "higher risk" because of traveling students, like after Family Day, Oct. 1, and following fall and Thanksgiving breaks.

"Students selected for random testing will be contacted by [campus] Health Services to be tested," Gann said. "We also encourage any student who is symptomatic to contact Health Services to be tested."

Students from New England and New York who test positive for COVID-19 are required to travel home until they recover, but for those enrolled from elsewhere, the university has some quarantine and isolation rooms available. Gann said the university is using 30 beds in Granite Hall — an underclassmen residence hall — though students are also encouraged to quarantine or isolate in their own dorm room.

There were three known active COVID-19 cases at the Rindge campus as of Monday, according to the university's community case reporting webpage. Gann said these numbers are updated "as necessary."

"As the majority of our students, faculty and staff are vaccinated and boosted — a requirement for enrollment — we are experiencing an expected number of cases," she said.

Gann said Franklin Pierce does not have a threshold number of cases that might trigger a mask requirement for the semester at present. She noted that if a formal requirement was to be reinstated, it would apply to any large gathering areas, which include the campus dining hall and library in addition to classrooms.

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Trisha Nail can be reached at 603-352-1234, ext. 1436, or tnail@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @byTrishaNail.

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