The University of Maryland has ended PCR testing on campus, stopped publishing data to the COVID dashboard, and removed the mask mandate in nearly all settings. In doing so, it has adopted a “let it rip'' COVID strategy, demonstrating a complete lack of regard for its students, faculty, and staff, but also for the communities which surround it.  It pays lip service to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” while paying no mind to the disastrous consequences its policies will have for the predominantly Black county it occupies and how its actions will further health inequities by willfully spreading this virus. Through its disregard for COVID safety, it has rendered almost every space on campus unsafe and inaccessible for everyone, but especially for those most vulnerable to the harmful effects of the virus, such as immunocompromised, disabled, elderly, Black, Latinx, indigenous, and working class people. 

Unsurprisingly, there were over 1,200 self-reported cases through the first month of the fall semester, which is likely a significant undercount of the true number of infections. We must not normalize mass infection, and the mass death and disability which result from it. 

President Pines, we demand the following basic protections against the spread of COVID at UMD to make this campus more safe and accessible for everyone during this ongoing pandemic. 

1. Instate a high quality (KF94, KN95, N95 or better) mask mandate in all indoor spaces and distribute masks throughout campus.
2. Improve ventilation in all buildings to minimize the amount of the virus in the air. 
3. Clean indoor air through the use of air filtration devices in every classroom and other spaces where people congregate. 
4. Provide free PCR testing on campus and display case numbers through the COVID dashboard.
5. Provide educational resources to the campus community on the airborne nature of COVID, information on vaccine boosters, the risks of Long COVID, the difference between PCR and antigen tests, and other vital pieces of information we need to protect one another.