FAYETTEVILLE -- Members of the University of Arkansas board of trustees wore face coverings Friday after a day earlier going without masks.
Board chairman Dr. Stephen Broughton began Friday's meeting by saying the board "fully endorses and supports" the indoor mask policy in place at the UA-Fayetteville campus, where the two-day meeting took place.
"We recognize the fact that we are on the campus at this time, and we need to support the policy that's in place," said Broughton, a psychiatrist from Pine Bluff.
Public universities in Arkansas announced masking measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus in the days following an Aug. 6 order from a Pulaski County circuit judge that temporarily blocked the state's anti-masking law.
Act 1002, a law passed in April, prohibits state-supported universities, public schools, state agencies -- as well as any state or local official -- from requiring face coverings, but it has been blocked pending the outcome of a court challenge.
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Back in August, after the court order, the 10-member University of Arkansas trustees board approved a resolution directing campuses in the UA System to implement face covering policies "regardless of vaccination status" for indoor public settings when physical distancing cannot be assured, and stated that the policies should be for "students, faculty, staff and guests."
The board's resolution in August allowed for "reasonable exceptions" for certain activities, including those overseen by governing bodies such as athletic conferences or the NCAA. The resolution cited the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stating that campus policies should be "in accordance with CDC guidance regarding the COVID-19 Delta variant."
The CDC recommends masks be worn by all unvaccinated persons in public indoor settings, and that fully vaccinated individuals living in areas of substantial or high transmission of covid-19 also wear masks in public indoor settings.
Based on CDC data this week, Arkansas continues to be considered as having a high rate of covid-19 transmission. The entire United States is also considered to have a high rate of covid-19 transmission.
Broughton, at the start of Friday's meeting, described the board as a close group, saying that "we have all been vaccinated, and we've been socially around each other as family would be." But he said the group "will be masked today."
The Fayetteville campus policy that took effect Aug. 11 states that masks are required indoors in all university facilities when at least six feet of physical distancing cannot be maintained.
Seven board members appeared in person Friday, while two members, Ed Fryar and Sheffield Nelson, appeared remotely via a video link both Thursday and Friday. Another board member, Jeremy Wilson, appeared in person Thursday but wasn't present Friday.
University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt sat with the board members and wore a face covering both days.
The board members present Friday generally removed face coverings to speak or when leading committee sessions during the course of the meeting, which lasted about two hours and 15 minutes.
Others who addressed the board from a lectern often removed their masks when speaking.