BURLINGTON, Vt. – About a year into mask mandates, nasal swabs and remote classes, the atmosphere turned tense at the University of Vermont as the school cracked down on rules for social distancing and face coverings amid a spike in student COVID-19 cases.
Students were handed hundreds of citations for violations like standing in another student’s doorway or walking maskless to a hallway restroom, igniting a student-led petition that blasted “strict and inhumane living conditions.” “You start to feel suffocated like I’m afraid to leave my room,” freshman Patrick Welsh said in an interview on campus.
Even as restrictions relax across much of the United States, colleges and universities have taken new steps to police campus life as the virus