Dear UIS Students and Colleagues:

Yesterday, Gov. Pritzker outlined his plan for lifting indoor mask requirements in Illinois effective Feb. 28, except for where required by federal, state or local rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.

At this time, UIS continues to enforce its existing guidelines that require everyone to wear a face covering indoors. When we established our operational guidelines last fall, we shared that our decisions about face coverings would be based on the level of community transmission, as reported by the CDC, as well as campus transmission — and that in most cases, UIS will operate based on the highest level of transmission if community and campus transmission rates differ. For areas of high transmission, which includes Sangamon County, the CDC recommends face coverings for everyone in public indoor settings. However, in light of the progress our state and campus are making in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 following the Omicron surge, members of the UIS administrative team will be meeting with our shared governance partners in the coming days to help inform any future decisions on changes to our face-covering guidelines.

I also want to clarify that the Temporary Restraining Order affecting mask mandates at several K-12 school districts in Illinois does not apply to institutions of higher education. Should UIS make adjustments to any of our COVID-19 requirements, they will be announced via official university communication channels as appropriate.

Our regular weekly COVID-19 briefing is at 1 p.m. today if you’d like to ask any questions about our face-covering guidelines or other COVID-19 topics. Login information is below.

United in Safety,

Karen

Karen M. Whitney, PhD
Interim Chancellor
University of Illinois Springfield