DENVER — Effective this week, all students and staff will be required to wear a mask while indoors on the Auraria campus.
The mandate applies to all three schools the campus covers and requires all 38,000 students and 5,000 staff and faculty members to abide by it, vaccinated or not.
"This is our moment to come together and if we have to wear a mask indoors so be it, but we're going to be together," Auraria campus CEO Colleen Walker told 9NEWS. "The great news is that the policy only affects indoors. So we've got 150 acres you can be unmasked outside, you can see your friends, socialize, have a great time but when we're indoors we're going to mask up until its prudent not to do so."
According to campus officials, more than 80% of students and 90% of staff and faculty are vaccinated.
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"The CDC is saying that even vaccinated people can transmit the disease and so we are wanting to make the opening of the college campus as safe and successful as possible," Walker added.
Incoming freshman Carlos Cuevas is happy to see the mask mandate. He told 9NEWS he'd prefer that than having to do another school year virtually.
"I always wear my mask everyday so just feels nice to have everyone safe around you and keeping everyone like your family and friends safe also," he said. "Keep in mind like this is luxurious right now it’s so nice to be in person. We’re going to be fine. We’ll make it through this."
Walker told 9NEWS campus officials will monitor the situation and take the indoor mask mandate away when they feel it is safe to do so.
CU Boulder also announced that they'll be requiring masks in public, indoor spaces, starting on Friday.
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