Purdue Fort Wayne ends face mask requirement

At the recommendation of the PFW Ready Committee and with the full support of university leadership, Purdue Fort Wayne will no longer require face masks to be worn on campus beginning Monday, March 21. Face masks will now be optional for students, faculty, staff, and visitors. The exceptions are that the Campus Health Clinic and the IU Dental Clinic will continue to require face masks until further notice.

The university announced last month that it would be relaxing its face mask requirement for some parts of campus and that further review of the protocol would take place following Spring Break.

This decision is based on the fact that Indiana and Allen County continue to experience significant declines and very low COVID-19 case counts and positivity rates. Self-reported cases on campus continue to decline, and there has been no increase in reported cases on campus following Spring Break.

Additionally, the university will implement several other recommendations made by the PFW Ready Committee:

• Discontinue the weekly PFW Ready Q&A Sessions, effective this Friday, March 18
• Discontinue the online COVID-19 data dashboard, effective this Friday, March 18
• Sunset the PFW Ready Committee following its April 6 meeting
• Continue with the COVID-19 point of contact (Jeff Malanson) through at least this summer
• Continue to maintain the PFW Ready website through at least this summer

All members of the university community who wish to continue wearing face masks are certainly encouraged to do so. Free N95 face masks are still available by showing your campus ID at Rhinehart Music Center’s Schatzlein Box Office. Box office hours are Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. and Wednesdays from 2:30 to 6:30 pm. Students may also pick up free N95 masks at the Student Housing Clubhouse.

If you have not done so already, Purdue Fort Wayne strongly recommends that all students and employees get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The PFW Ready website will continue to have the latest information related to the university’s ongoing response to COVID-19. Important information will also be communicated through the Inside PFW (for faculty and staff) and Don Life (for students) newsletters.