By signing this petition, you are demanding that K-State implement the following policy:

• Encouraged: All students, faculty, staff, and visitors to campus are encouraged to wear face masks in all indoor spaces and when around others. Unvaccinated individuals are encouraged to wear a face mask anywhere they are around others, and to practice physical distancing when possible.
• Required: Face masks are required on the ATA Bus, at Lafene Health Center, and in areas of the College of Veterinary Medicine where face masks are normally required.
• Personal choice: Faculty, staff, students, and visitors to campus may choose to wear or not wear a face mask anywhere they deem appropriate. Faculty and staff cannot require students and employees to wear a face mask, except were indicated above.
• Learning spaces: Instructors can encourage students individually and in group settings to wear face masks. This guidance is consistent with current CDC recommendations for indoor settings. Instructors cannot: require face masks, penalize or criticize students for not wearing one, offer incentives (such as extra credit) to those who wear one, or direct students to sit in different areas of the classroom based on masking or vaccination status.

K-State students are tired of forced masking. We are sick of the campus hostility. We are tired of not being able to see each other’s smiles. We are tired of the ineffective and delusional policy of enforcing cloth masks. We are tired of the damage to our mental health. We a tired of being in a minority of Big 12 schools that require forced masking. We long for a return to normalcy. We demand change.

Why it is time to implement this policy:

1. See our full petition: 
2. Kansas State University is part of a minority of Big 12 schools that still require forced masking. Iowa State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Missouri (SEC), and Nebraska (BIG10) do not have forced indoor masking.  
3. K-State's COVID-19 positivity rate has declined for 5 weeks in a row. Omicron has peaked at K-State and is declining rapidly nationwide. K-State students and staff have an extremely high rate of vaccination. 
4. Forced masking is harming the mental health of our students and faculty. We have had more student suicides than COVID deaths from 2020 to 2022. Mental health is more of a crisis to K-State than COVID.
5. Cloth masks are relatively ineffective against the highly transmissible omicron variant. Enforcing a cloth mask mandate is not doing much except providing for division. CDC has recognized this reality and updated its guidance to encourage KN95 or N95 mask. 

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Email Us: maskchoiceksu@gmail.com