Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

University Managers Deserve Our Empathy on Mask Policy Decisions

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by

sherlockj
in ,

by James C. Sherlock

JMU student newspaper The Breeze posted a story about strong differences of opinion on lifting the mask mandate across campus.

These types of situations put university officials between a rock and a hard place. While they understand that comes with the job, it is impossible not to feel some empathy.

Tim Miller, vice president for student affairs, spoke for many of them when he said:

“I would say that for every message I get saying, ‘I would like to stop wearing a mask,’ I get another message saying, ‘Please don’t make masks go away.” “[Both] sides are all very convinced that their perspective is the right one — all the others are wrong. Being in the middle of that can be challenging.”

Indeed.

Leadership is about choices of actions from among conflicting alternatives, but that doesn’t make some choices easy or popular.

For the students, part of growing up is learning to accept decisions that will not always go your way. Faculty are already, at least legally, adults. The JMU Faculty Senate, never disappointing expectations, voted heavily to keep on masking.

So students, if you get the opportunity, offer Mr. Miller a drink. Perhaps a mug of purple passion.

You know you have some.

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26 responses to “University Managers Deserve Our Empathy on Mask Policy Decisions”

  1. walter smith Avatar
    walter smith

    I have a crazy idea. How about saying wear a mask if you want?
    You could try logic and point out that we never did this before. You could point out that it appears the lockdowns and social distancing did not stop the spread. You could point out that the vaccine mandate for Covid still had “cases” running for the Fall semester at about 60% vaccinated, and this was before EVERYBODY got Omicron. You could also point out that many students were not vaccinated for childhood vaccines – all along – and nobody died!
    It is time to move past the stupidity.

    1. kls Avatar
      kls

      VT’s President Tim ‘I just want to get back to CA’ Sands is still requiring masks indoors for students and staff, except for himself when he decides not to wear one…

      1. walter smith Avatar
        walter smith

        And I believe UVA is still requiring masks in class until March 21…cuz SCIENCE! sez the start of Spring magically makes the masks not needed then, while masks were already not needed at JPJ.
        I think UVA has so damaged any scholarly credibility by not allowing any dissenting viewpoint (besides being wrong scientifically, but that is a whole different point!).

    2. VaNavVet Avatar
      VaNavVet

      Approaching one million Americans dead as a consequence of Covid. The science indicates that as the metrics decrease then masks can no longer be required. They can be brought back as needed in the future. Governors are following the science. Clearly, everyone did not get Omicron and most people would not want to. I am currently responding to a prayer request from a well known Virginia artist whose son has been hospitalized since January with a very bad case of Covid. I am sure that your prayers for John would also be appreciated.

      1. walter smith Avatar
        walter smith

        You and Larry are ridiculous.
        Maybe I can get you to pray for my friend’s son who is having blood clots in his kidneys…and it appears tied to the third shot…
        There is no science saying masks work. And they certainly don’t work the way they are worn. It is theater.
        And maybe the Covid hospitalization is due to suppression of therapeutics that work. Why is the CDC official treatment protocol do nothing, rely entirely on the ineffective vaccine, and if you get really sick, go to the hospital when it may already be too late?
        Why not encourage people to lose weight and have Vitamin D? (And don’t mention HCQ and IVM the horse dewormer which you are a knuckle-dragging idiot if you believe they work and all the people they have worked on is not possible because the CDC says so!)
        How many people double and triple-jabbed of all the Omicron cases got Omicron? Something like 90%? The vaccinate everybody strategy in the midst of a pandemic caused that mutation. The real science was to vaccinate those at risk and to take precautionary measures. Of course, even better would have been to treat early with HCQ, IVM and all the other therapeutics that should be tailored to each individual, based on his or her particular medical history, but then you couldn’t have EUA authorization of the ineffective vaccine if there are therapeutics. This has been a crime against humanity.

        1. VaNavVet Avatar
          VaNavVet

          I will gladly add your friend’s son to my prayer list along with you.

        2. Stephen Haner Avatar
          Stephen Haner

          Sorry about your friend’s son, but if exposure to the partial virus in the vaccine triggered a problem, the disease probably would have done the same. Clearly that’s the case with clotting issues.

          1. walter smith Avatar
            walter smith

            Right. We don’t know. Apparently the second shot knocked him hard. The third he immediately started throwing up. Then he slept for a long time and looked awful…a couple of weeks later… And he doesn’t have Covid to blame the virus. Even my friend, a masker and big believer in the Covid vaccine, suspects strongly the shot.
            The shot affects different people differently. It should be an individual decision. As a 21 year old otherwise healthy, he didn’t need the shot. But he desperately needs his kidneys to turn back “on.”

  2. Baconator with extra cheese Avatar
    Baconator with extra cheese

    It’s hard to dismiss your religion. Being woke-virtuous is now our national religion/ cult.

    1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      a cult, not our cult.

      1. VaNavVet Avatar
        VaNavVet

        A “cult” practiced by both the progressive left and the regressive right. The fall back position should be to make it a personal choice to wear a mask not to bully teens into removing theirs as DeSantis did.

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      In a religion, the founder sacrifices for his followers. In a cult, the followers sacrifice for the founder.

  3. tmtfairfax Avatar
    tmtfairfax

    Back to Roe v Wade and its progeny. Didn’t these cases stand for the constitutional right for a person to make decisions about her/his healthcare with or without input from the person’s healthcare provider? So, why the debate? If someone wants to wear a mask, isn’t that OK? If someone doesn’t want to wear a mask, isn’t that OK too? And, to boot, CDC and many other government bodies have ratcheted back masking guidance.

    Jeff McKay, who took a hard line on masking in FCPS, right before Senator Chap Peterson kneecapped McKay in the General Assembly, Democratic governor around the country and the CDC pulled back on masking requirements, looks like a total idiot. Hasn’t the media goosed him? Oh, I forget, Democracy Dies in Darkness.

    And one can make a strong argument that the MSM provides solid proof that Calvin was right about double predestination.

  4. James C. Sherlock Avatar
    James C. Sherlock

    History lesson. I am informed by a young man of 50 who went to JMU that he has never heard of a purple passion.

    Given the school colors, I assumed it was popular there. The link is to a recipe for a vodka version. https://www.food.com/recipe/alcoholic-purple-passion-315595?ref=tfrecipe

    The original was made that way but with EverClear grain alcohol when I was in school. Perhaps with somewhat less careful measuring.

    It became so popular that EverClear marketed a ready made version in the 1980’s.

    Apparently by the 90’s it had disappeared, at least at JMU.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Not every student spent Saturday morning calling Ralph in Detroit on the porcelain telephone, but to have never even heard of a Purple Passion? Preposterous!

      Of course the polite thing to do was to show up with a nice bottle of Sly Fox, Ripple, Annie Greenspring, “Mad Dog” 20/20, or the ever popular Richard’s Wild Irish Rose.

      “The screw off cap has a delicate bouquet!” “Ah! A ’69! An excellent price!”

      1. Lefty665 Avatar
        Lefty665

        There was also Mother’s Vinyards Scuppernong aka Peterspatch’s finest and Virginia Dare or Boar’s Head (both Richmond products gently fermented & grain added to get them to 12%) stacked up at the checkout. 69 could have been both the price and the vintage. Mateus Rose was for a “special” occasion.

        Long long ago, but not so far away:)

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          Fermented? Or fomented? There was Reunite… the fine Italian wine made with pine resin.

          1. Lefty665 Avatar
            Lefty665

            Yes:)

            My recollection is that there was a state regulation on how long it had to ferment/foment before it could be called wine. The winery (?) down in Shockoe valley reputedly hit the bare minimum and not a minute more.

  5. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    Maybe if they took a few zeros off their salaries I’d have some empathy. Please. Herding the snowflakes on the crucial question of masks….how do the stand the stress…

  6. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Two sides to every mask…
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72798-7

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Yeah, but, it’s airborne. Not just aerosol, but airborne. Very different. With the virus so small it goes through most masks like a chain link fence. My scientists can beat your scientists!

      But seeing what you drank at W&M (and after?) explains much. I met Ralph only a couple of times and that cured me. Once in Landrum. Think about it. 🙂

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        You know that the virus doesn’t just float about by itself. Like an astronaut, it needs a capsule. If you took a tiny pair of tweezers and held one by a protein spike, it would die quickly. Again, the upshot of the April 2020 presser.

        1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
          James C. Sherlock

          “virus doesn’t just float about by itself. Like an astronaut, it needs a capsule.” Pretty much like natural gas.

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            I would guess you would know. Hermetically sealed, no doubt.

      2. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        FYI, once in college. My shoes came up. It was scotch. Teachers, if I recall. Put me off scotch for 20 years.

        I tasted every one of those, but I sacrificed gas money for upgrades to either Mateus, or Blue Nun. Kept a corkscrew in the car.

        1. Lefty665 Avatar
          Lefty665

          Hope you got better:) There’s nothing like a good peaty Islay single malt with overtones of mcadam and asphalt.

          Gin was what did it to me. I still can’t pass a juniper tree without wanting to barf.

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