Rutgers Wins Legal Battle With Faculty To Make Masks Optional

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — The masks are back off — again — at Rutgers University.

On Oct. 21, a state board overruled a legal challenge from the Rutgers' professor unions and decided RU is well within its rights to no longer require masks in classrooms or libraries.

The board is the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC), which decides public employee labor issues.

In late September, Rutgers lifted its mask mandate campus-wide. However, three Rutgers faculty unions said they were never consulted on the decision and they filed a legal complaint with PERC.

"We learned (with little notice) that Rutgers would no longer require face coverings in classrooms and libraries," said Rutgers professors Rebecca Givan and Todd Wolfson, president and vice president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT on Oct. 3.

The professors won a temporary restraining order, and for most of October, everyone had to wear masks in libraries. Rutgers professors could also still require masks in their individual classrooms.

But Rutgers administration vowed they would try an overturn the PERC ruling. On Oct. 21, Rutgers chief operating officer Antonio Calcado announced the administration was successful. Nobody at Rutgers has to wear masks, except in clinical settings.

"The Public Employment Relations Commission ruled this week that, pending a further ruling, our decision to no longer require face coverings in indoor teaching spaces and libraries is in effect," Calcado said in this statement. "The latest ruling from PERC means that masks are no longer required in classrooms or libraries, pending any further ruling."

The Rutgers faculty union did not release a statement in response.

"These have been our goals from the start," the professors previously said. "Give instructors the right to weigh the concerns and judge what is best within their classrooms for their health and safety and that of their families, students and communities."

Masks are still required in all clinical and laboratory settings at Rutgers.