The governor’s office originally planned to lift the indoor mask mandate on March 21, now scheduled for March 11

With the end of the indoor mask mandate on the horizon for WSU and other state facilities, WSU students have mixed reactions to change.

Alex Stuart, a junior double major in accounting and management information systems, said he felt the announcement was an overall positive development.

“I feel like at this point it’s a step in the right direction personally because I think a lot of COVID cases have slowed down a lot,” Stuart said.

Stuart said he doesn’t believe there are any situations that would require a mask mandate to remain in place after the majority of them are lifted.

Senior organic and sustainable agriculture specialist Cass Riggan said he also thinks it’s a good idea to lift the restrictions and hopes WSU will follow the state’s lead to avoid confusion.

“If I go to Walmart and I don’t have a mask on, but if I show up here and I have to put on a mask, I’d rather not,” Riggan said. “I’m at the point in my life where I forget about masks again.”

Sophomore animal science student Connor Beene said he thought it was good that most restrictions were lifted, but he thinks most people still need to be careful about COVID-19.

“I think that’s fine, but it’s also important for those who are very affected, like immunocompromised people, to absolutely stick to masks,” Beene said. “I also think the environment matters too. Like if you’re in a big crowd, that’s probably not a good idea [to not wear a mask].”

Beene said he thought the mid-March date was a good time to lift most restrictions, but pushing it back wouldn’t necessarily be a bad idea.

“I think [WSU] could follow the same tenure, but he could also play on the safe side and be very careful with the indoor stuff,” Beene said. “I feel like a lot of our indoor classroom and other activities still have large populations, so I think it would be prudent to maintain mask mandates to some extent.”

Heather Taylor, a freshman fine arts student, said she thinks it’s too early to lift mask mandates at this point.

“Coming back from spring break, some people have parents like mine who are COVID deniers who haven’t been vaccinated and they do all kinds of things,” Taylor said. “So personally I’ll be wearing my mask much longer after that because I don’t want to get sick and I don’t want to make somebody else sick.”

Taylor said she was okay with people wanting to be allowed to take off masks, but she was disappointed that many people at WSU could take off their masks and spread COVID-19.

Skyler Prince, a second-year applied maths student, hadn’t heard the announcement yet, but didn’t think the restrictions should be lifted just yet.

“I don’t really agree with that,” Prince said. “I think we have to keep wearing masks and keep being as safe as possible. I just feel like I’m ignoring the problem.

Prince said he thinks it’s too early to lift masks with higher than average COVID-19 cases and hopes WSU doesn’t get rid of all of its mask mandates.

“I’m a little disappointed,” Prince said. “I hope WSU at least keep it inside... I hope they keep at least that.