Green Bay Reporter

Wisconsin state Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) is completely on board with the University of Wisconsin’s system-wide mask mandate for indoor facilities across campus.

“Our University of Wisconsin System schools are taking steps to increase health safety by instituting mask requirements, despite Sen. Nass playing politics with the health and safety of students and staff,” Larson posted on Twitter. “Thanks for taking this pandemic seriously and prioritizing public health.”

As the number of coronavirus cases has been on the rise, the UW mask mandate applies to all individuals, regardless of vaccination status.

Mandate or not, GOP lawmakers aren’t giving up, continuing an effort to block COVID-19 restrictions at state universities. Over the last several weeks, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout, UW-River Falls, UW-La Crosse and UW-Whitewater have all been among the institutions announcing mask mandates.

While students may be disappointed with the restrictions, UW-Eau Claire Student Body President Jaden Mikoulinskii said she thinks they understand the order, which is slated to be enforced by the campus Human Resources Department, Dean of Students’ Office and police department with punishments ranging from citations to fines.  

"So students, of course, are a little frustrated in that they were really expecting to come back this fall, have everything be revitalized, going back to 'normal,'" Mikoulinskii said.

State Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) said he is intent on still fighting for them, recently announcing he and other members of the state Bottom of FormLegislature's Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules planned to order the UW System to submit all COVID-19 campus regulations to the committee for approval.

"Unfortunately, some chancellors in the UW System consider themselves mini-Andrea Palms not beholden to following state law and moving quickly to take advantage of the delta-variant hysteria to enact excessive COVID-19 mandates," he said in a press release. "The Legislature should not drag its feet in utilizing the powers we have to prevent state agencies from abusing the statutory and constitutional rights of citizens as was done in 2020."