Brown University Hopes to Drop Masks in Classrooms This Spring

(Bloomberg) -- Brown University may allow students to finally ditch their masks this spring, barring any new disruptive variants, said President Christina Paxson.

“I would love to lose the masks,” Paxson said in an interview with Bloomberg News. Going maskless allows people to see people's smiles and confused faces, expressions that matter in an educational environment, she said.

Providence, Rhode Island-based Brown, like many other institutions, is preparing for the point when Covid becomes endemic. Two years into the pandemic, that day may be nearing, with vaccines required by many colleges and the contagious omicron variant starting to pass its crest in the U.S.

Paxson said she consulted with Ashish Jha, dean of Brown's School of Public Health, and the institution could end indoor mask mandates in the coming months.

“He's pretty optimistic that barring another variant, we'll get to that point later in the spring, which would be fantastic,” Paxson said.

Life on campus is already “pretty close to normal,” with students eating in dining halls and going about their business. Brown advocated bringing students back to classrooms early in the pandemic, sometimes putting administrators at odds with faculty who preferred a more cautious approach.

Brown still needs to solve questions facing employers across the U.S., such as which employees to bring back and when.

“We're working through reimagining the workplace,” she said. “For a lot of people, that workplace flexibility is really important and they're happier when they don't have to commute in every day.”