Temple University students and employees will no longer be required to wear masks in most campus spaces — including dining and residence halls — beginning March 21, wrote Ken Kaiser, senior vice president and chief administrative officer, and Gregory Mandel, senior vice president and provost, in a message to the Temple community Friday.
The mandate will remain in effect for classrooms, health care facilities, shuttles and other places where in-person learning is taking place.
Masking will also be optional in most common areas, nonclinical office spaces, meeting rooms and the Liacouras Center.
The announcement comes a little more than a week after Philadelphia dropped its indoor mask mandate for public indoor spaces, with a few exceptions. Temple kept its mask requirement in place until it could evaluate the safety of lifting its mandate.
Philadelphia has 57 new COVID-19 cases as of March 10, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s case dashboard.
Temple has 23 active COVID-19 cases as of March 10, according to the university’s vaccine and case dashboard.
Temple will continue to evaluate COVID-19 data and notify students and employees of further changes in masking policy. The university encourages students and employees to carry a high-quality mask with them to wear if needed.
The University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University are continuing to require masks. Drexel University will require masks through the end ofMarch 19. As of March 7, wearing a mask indoors at La Salle University is optional.
“Our Temple community has shown amazing resilience and agility in responding to some incredibly challenging circumstances,” Kaiser and Mandel wrote. “Let’s continue to demonstrate flexibility moving forward.”
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