Starting this week, wearing a surgical mask has become mandatory on campus – even while studying. A walk across campus, however, reveals that adherence to the new mask policy seems lackluster. For her studies, student Willeke has to translate some old texts off of her laptop screen. She reports having some issues with dry eyes, due to her face mask. Esmée (Psychology student) is rather annoyed by the fact that her mask limits her breathing and peripheral vision: ‘However: I’d rather wear masks all day than having the university close again.’

Rian Manders and Bert ter Brugge are supervising exams on campus. Both are rather positive about adherence to mask guidelines during exams. ‘We’ve only had a couple of students who wanted to remove their face masks during tests. We aren’t going into debates with them. They’ve been emailed that it’s mandatory to wear a surgical mask during exams. In most cases, students are very cooperative, though.’ Rian wears an FFP2 mask herself. ‘They ‘cut’ into your ears a little, but will protect you much better than ordinary fabric masks.