Stop Mask
Bans on Campus

A project by Fight for the Future & COVID Safe Campus

COVID Safe Campus is tracking mask restriction policies at colleges and universities in the United States. Those with hostile policies toward mask-wearing are listed here, labeled AT RISK for schools that have not yet restricted masks but may move to, RESTRICTED for schools that force students to unmask to be identified or otherwise restrict the right to wear a mask, or BANNED for schools that ban mask-wearing on campus in any situation. There are currently no known schools with policies defending the right to wear a mask. Schools that commit to refusing to ban or restrict masking will be marked WON’T BAN.
Click here to read more about how schools are labeled.

Want to add a policy or correction to the scorecard? Submit data anonymously here.

Campus Mask Policy Scorecard

Campus mask bans threaten public health, privacy, and protest rights.

In response to anti-genocide and anti-fascist protests across the country, colleges and universities are restricting mask-wearing on campus. Administrators claim that banning masks will “keep students safe,” but the truth is, exacerbating sickness and surveillance on campus is dangerous for everyone. 

It’s no secret that administrators wanted to unmask campus protestors even before Trump’s escalations against student activists. Now, the Trump Administration is demanding schools enact campus mask bans as part of its attack on higher education, and some schools, like Columbia University, are capitulating.

Mask bans are a tool of surveillance and suppression of free speech, allowing universities to more easily target and silence their students for engaging in their right to protest. By allowing doxxing and stalking, employing extensive camera and facial recognition systems, and surveilling students’ social media, universities have already created a culture of surveillance. Mask restrictions seek to force compliance to this system and threaten students’ safety and privacy.

With highly contagious diseases like COVID continuing to wreak havoc on our communities, it is more crucial than ever to protect and expand the right to mask. Instead, mask restrictions rob students and workers of the autonomy to protect their health and safety without fear of profiling or reprisal. Plus, they have a stigmatizing effect that can harm everyone’s health by accelerating the spread of disease where students already live, learn, and work in close quarters. 

Allowing cops and administrators to force unmasking threatens the health of everyone, especially affecting Disabled, Black, and low-income students and staff who already suffer disproportionately high rates of Long COVID.

Unmasking policies are already being used by campus police to profile, target, and harass Black and Brown students. Rather than keeping people safe, mask bans fuel discriminatory practices, making campuses a minefield for marginalized people and a more dangerous learning environment for all.

Take Action

Mask bans are intended to divide student solidarity and make it harder to gather and organize—but we don’t have to cede ground. If you can’t find an established effort to push back on anti-mask policies on your campus, here are a few ways to start: 

• Connect with impacted groups on your campus. This might mean reaching out to your local/campus mask bloc, disability justice/affinity group, Black or Muslim student union, faculty and/or staff union, pro-Palestine organizing group, or others. Efforts to fight mask bans are stronger when we come together to defend the right to mask for a plethora of reasons.
• Plan messaging and actions to resist anti-mask policies and stigma. This could look like individuals or groups hanging flyers, speaking to professors and classmates, advocating on social media, or organizing wear-a-mask days/weeks, walk-outs, or rallies. This could also look like maintaining or strengthening mask-wearing practices within existing organizing and daily campus life.
• Connect with your institution’s faculty senate. Several universities and colleges have passed resolutions in favor of joining mutual defense compacts that establish cross-institution support if any school under the compact were to come under attack. Mask bans are one of many aspects of attacks on higher education. Put this issue on your faculty senate’s radar, build allyship in advance or fight mask bans together.
• Support students, staff, and community members targeted by anti-mask policies. Organize to be prepared when campus authorities and police demand people unmask on campus or deny masked students entry to their classes or dorms. Encourage those at lower risk of targeting and harassment to mask in solidarity with multiply marginalized students.

For more information on city, state, and federal mask ban legislation and ways to fight back, head to StopMaskBans.com.

Scorecard Criteria

It’s important to note that all restrictions on masking are harmful and should be resisted. For the purpose of this scorecard, we chose to distinguish between restrictions and bans (broad or situational) in order to highlight areas of elevated severity. Here are our criteria:

AT RISK

• Schools that have not yet restricted masks but have come under threat by the Trump administration during its recent attacks on higher education. These threats have included demands for mask bans at several institutions. We are tracking masking policies at these schools to identify any future restrictions.

RESTRICTED (if either of the following apply):

• Policies that restrict but do not explicitly prohibit or directly punish mask use. For example, policies requiring mask-wearers to temporarily unmask, show identification, or provide medical documentation if asked by authorities.
• OR a policy prohibiting masks that only applies to a one-time event (e.g. convocation).

BANNED (if any of the following apply):

• Policies that explicitly prohibit wearing masks and/or directly punish those who do, especially with disciplinary or criminal penalties. 
• Policies that prohibit masking altogether in particular situations, including at protests or gatherings, in certain buildings, or for certain purposes.

WON’T BAN:

• Policies or statements by universities that explicitly defend the right to wear a mask or make a commitment to not banning or restricting mask-wearing on campus.