COVID-19 safeguards boasted by the university include the mask mandate, the monthly testing of unvaccinated students, the daily symptom tracker, the vaccine mandate, and the millions of dollars invested into HEPA air filters.
This may sound like a good foundation for pandemic safety, but almost none of these precautions are properly enforced. 
The mask mandate on campus is a joke. Most classrooms are packed to the brim, making social distancing impossible. Not only are spaces overcrowded, but depending on the professor, masks may be optional altogether despite requirements that classes be in person.
“There are students who do not wear face masks in class even during a COVID-19 spike,” said physical therapy senior Chloe Mendy. 
Mendy said most of her classes barely have any empty seats. Even with more COVID-19 cases than ever, some professors refuse to offer a Zoom option, and Mendy noticed peers still failing to wear masks in class.
“It concerns me, and it definitely makes me uncomfortable,” Mendy said. “The space is so tiny in one of my classes, and it’s packed. I have no idea how it’s allowed to have that many students in such a small room with professors giving no option to do class virtually.” 
It is also important to note that not all on-campus events require facial coverings. This season, the university’s basketball team has done well, and the Pete Maravich Assembly Center can be packed to the brim with basketball fans. Still, the university has only encouraged facial coverings, rather than requiring them. Not only is there no mask mandate, but COVID-19 testing is not required. Even though Louisiana has hit a million COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, the university is still having basketball games open to the public with no restrictions. 
The symptom tracker is another example of a poor COVID-19 safeguard. I have never been required to fill out the symptom tracker to access campus, and a majority of students say the same. The Reveille recently reported that only about 8% of faculty and students filled out the symptom tracker on average last semester. 
The symptom tracker is supposed to prohibit students from campus if they have any symptoms of COVID-19, therefore, giving them a legitimate excuse to miss class. However, failing the symptom checker is often not considered an excuse for absence by professors, in my personal experience.
Last semester, I visited the LSU Student Health Center because I had COVID-19 symptoms. The nurse told me to fill out the symptom tracker and send a screenshot of the results to my professors as an excuse of absence until my test results returned. The SHC is not allowed to give out excuses for class, but the nurse told me the symptom tracker result was sufficient.
This was not the case.
Some of my professors would not allow me to miss class, despite the fact that my symptom tracker result barred me from campus. I even had one professor threaten to give me a zero for an in-class activity that I missed because I was waiting on my COVID-19 test results. 
Requiring the COVID-19 vaccine is one step in the right direction, and the university is, to its credit, one of the only Southeastern Conference schools to require the vaccine. However, the university fails to consider the importance of booster shots.
I got vaccinated in July, meaning my immunity to the virus has faded significantly. Despite this, the university never asked for an update on my vaccination status in regards to a booster shot. Students could be attending classes with expired COVID-19 vaccines but not be required to get monthly COVID-19 tests, an oversight in the university’s policy.
All classrooms have expensive HEPA air filters that help get rid of airborne viruses. However, the Reveille reported last semester that the HEPA air filters were frequently unplugged by students and professors because they were too loud. What is the point of having expensive air filters if the university isn’t ensuring that all classes are using them? 
While the university may surpass our SEC peers in COVID-19 mitigation efforts, that doesn’t mean that the university is doing enough to keep faculty and students safe. The university needs to enforce its existing coronavirus protocols and implement a Zoom option for classes amid the latest surge before we have a repeat of March 2020. 
Kacey Buercklin is a 20-year-old political communications senior from Gainesville, Georgia.