The following letter was posted on the front door of the President’s House at Clemson University alongside a resolution signed by over 250 students and faculty members to repeal the mask mandate at Clemson.
President Jim Clements:
This is a petition signed by students and faculty to end the mask mandate at Clemson University.
These signatures were collected after only 2.5 hours behind the LittleJohn covid testing location and 2 additional hours next to the library bridge. During the time I spent collecting these signatures, I was able to talk to hundreds of Clemson students. As per these conversations, less than 10 students expressed their support for a mask mandate. The overwhelming majority of students felt no fear of covid, and most said they would be unbothered if the mandate was repealed. Of the 252 students and faculty who signed this petition, each one was enthusiastically vocal about their condemnation of the mask mandate.
The fact of the matter is that the student body is simply over this mandate.
You and your leadership have proven to be untrustworthy for several reasons, the primary being the complete lack of transparency regarding leadership decision-making. Each time your leadership extended the “temporary” mask mandate there was no justification for its extension. In the October 2021, CUSG Town Hall, Senate President Taylor Rogers told those present that in a meeting with several university executives, CUSG was informed that, regarding a goal for the end of the mask mandate, “there is absolutely no threshold, no like, bottom, no like, ‘once we get under 0.2% cases, we’re gonna stop.’ There’s no threshold.”
The lack of communication regarding supporting data and the frankly disturbing statements from university officials go against Clemson’s claim of being a “high seminary of learning.” I have spent the past several months researching the university’s response to covid, and the only data that I could find was during the August 16, 2021, address to faculty. In that address, Bob Jones, our very own provost, shared data compiled by Dr. Lior Rennert and gave his full confidence and support of the university safely starting the 2021-22 academic year without the mandate of facemasks. Despite this, with absolutely no scientific justification, your leadership instituted a university-wide mask mandate mere hours after the SC Supreme Court ruled against the proviso ban on mask mandates the very next day.
President Clements, I would also like to call attention to the fact that you personally attended the First Lady’s Gala in December without a mask, in a room filled with maskless faculty, at an off-campus location to avoid your own mandate. This display has shaken the trust of the student body and demonstrates a hypocritical leadership approach.
“Our record of success demonstrates that Clemson students are not only among the best and brightest students in the country but are also able to compete on a national and international level.” This is your quote. We do not trust you. To repair this relationship, start by trusting your students and let us make our own decisions. Publish the data used by the university to make decisions. Give us a reason to trust Clemson University. Above all else, however,
Repeal the Mask Mandate Immediately.