Asking permission to drink water sounds a little bizarre, doesn't it? But here we are.

Under Le Moyne's current mask policy, students are not allowed to eat or drink while in classrooms. Eating, sure - it takes some time to eat food. But why is drinking prohibited? All you have to do is pull your mask down, take a sip, and pull it back up. You don't even have to breathe while doing it.

For a campus that has a 94% partial or full vaccination rate amongst students (as of 9/2/21), a 96% full vaccination rate amongst faculty (as of 9/2/21), and has residential students tested for COVID-19 frequently, drinking water doesn't pose a serious threat to the Le Moyne community. (https://lemoyne.edu/COVID-19/COVID-Dashboard)

Out of the 8,697 COVID-19 tests given by the college since August 9, 2021, only 66 have been positive. That is 0.76% of all tests. Does a less than 1% positive test rate justify forbidding drinking water during a class? (https://lemoyne.edu/COVID-19/COVID-Dashboard)

Prohibiting eating and/or drinking in a workplace or classroom environment is not recommended explicitly in any of the guidelines provided by Onondaga County, New York State, or the CDC. Even for colleges that are not fully vaccinated (which technically Le Moyne is since there is a small percentage of people who aren't), the CDC says, "Although people who are fully vaccinated do not need to wear masks, IHEs [Institutions of Higher Education] should be be supportive of vaccinated people who choose to wear a mask," (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/colleges-universities/considerations.html) We're not asking to get rid of masks on campus right now; we're asking to pull them down for just a moment to drink water.

An email from the college on the morning of September 30, 2021 said, "Out of an abundance of caution, the College has determined that neither eating nor drinking are to be allowed during class unless a student has received a medical accommodation." Medical conditions should absolutely be taken seriously and afforded special accommodations, but why is drinking water one of them? Is drinking water to maintain proper hydration not beneficial to the basic health of every human being? Out of an abundance of caution, shouldn't we be taking better care of our health during a pandemic?

Finally, we are all adults. Adults should not have to ask for permission to take a sip of water, pandemic or not. If the college is this afraid of COVID-19, we should still be online. We're in-person because they wanted to return to normal - so actually make it normal.