University Of Georgia Professor Imposes Mask Mandate

ATHENS, GA — This week, hundreds of students and faculty across almost 20 Georgia public campuses are protesting the lack of mask and vaccine mandates, and asking that the University System of Georgia Board of Regents start allowing individual schools to impose mandates if they choose. Currently, schools and professors are not allowed to require anyone to wear a mask or get vaccinated.

One mathematics professor at the University of Georgia is not holding his breath for changes any time soon, especially since USG’s Acting Chancellor Teresa MacCartney said last week that the university system does not anticipate making any changes. The USG, whose Board of Regents are appointed by the governor, is following the guidance of Gov. Brian Kemp, who has called campus mask or vaccine mandates “divisive.”

Instead, Professor Joseph Fu is defying university policy by requiring students to wear masks in his class, and has said that he is willing to be fired over the issue.

“I feel that, as a tenured professor, I have a responsibility to my institution, not simply to my bosses, to act in its interest,” Fu told CNN’s Pamela Brown.

Fu, who has been a tenured professor at UGA since 1985, included the mask rule in the syllabi of his two calculus courses because not many students were wearing masks. Fu told his students through the syllabus and an email that he “reserve[s] the right to cancel all face to face meetings and conduct all class business over zoom.”

Fu told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he feels his two classes, which have about 30 students each, do not have enough room for students to socially distance, that he hopes he might inspire other professors to do the same thing. He is ready to provide masks to any student that does not have one.

Fu told the AJC that so far, he has not received any objections from students.

UGA spokesperson Greg Trevor said in a statement that the University “highly recommends masks inside campus facilities,” but “USG rules do not authorize individual faculty or staff to require face coverings in classrooms or campus buildings.” The school has also promoted the vaccine through its social media pages, and is planning drawings in the coming weeks of $1000 to fully vaccinated students, employees, and faculty, according to the AJC.

Still, Fu, and many other faculty across the USG system feel that only mandates will solve the growing number of COVID cases. Faculty members at several USG schools have resigned in protest, and over 4,000 professors have signed an online petition asking for mandates, or the right to impose them.

Monday marks the unofficial start of a week of protests at close to 20 public schools across Georgia, including the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, and the University of North Georgia. Organizers have stressed that these protests will not interfere with normal class hours.