Washington

Many colleges ease mask rules in third year of coronavirus pandemic

Published

2 years ago

August 20, 2022

Many colleges ease mask rules in third year of coronavirus pandemic

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At George Washington College, masks are nonetheless largely required indoors. So is vaccination towards the coronavirus, with a booster shot. So is viral testing for college kids returning to campus.

Catholic College, a number of miles away, makes all of that optionally available.

The 2 universities within the nation’s capital illustrate divergent methods on public well being as schools head into the third fall time period for the reason that stunning pandemic upheavals of early 2020.

Whereas the principles are tighter in some locations, looser in others, the targets in every single place stay the identical: Comprise the lingering risk of covid. Hold lessons working and college students enrolled.

Schools tense amid the omicron wave

For his or her half, college students are feeling reduction even in locations that proceed with comparatively strict protocols.

“At this second in time, I really feel essentially the most free to do what I would like with no normal fear and concern,” mentioned Isabella Banks, 20, a junior at GWU. “That’s modified over time. Once I first set foot on campus, I used to be like, public well being is every little thing.”

Now, she mentioned, the state of affairs has morphed from disaster to routine. But it surely stays a continuing in her ideas. “I don’t suppose I’ve ever monitored how a lot I’m washing my fingers as a lot as I’ve prior to now two years,” she mentioned.

Across the nation, schools divided sharply final yr on whether or not to require vaccination. That cut up endures. The College of California at Berkeley, as an example, mandates the coronavirus vaccine and, for many who are eligible, a booster shot. The College of Texas at Austin doesn’t require them however “strongly encourages” them.

Isolation guidelines for these contaminated with the virus and quarantine guidelines for these uncovered to it seem like easing in lots of locations. So are strict indoor masking insurance policies. UC-Berkeley, which required face protecting indoors a yr in the past, now strongly recommends that masks be worn indoors no matter vaccination standing.

Within the Washington area, indoor masks insurance policies differ intimately from one campus to a different. How a lot the principles shall be adopted, and the way intently they are going to be enforced, stays to be seen.

Georgetown College mentioned masks are required in lecture rooms and laboratories throughout instruction. They’re additionally mandated in well being amenities and early-childhood training facilities, and on college shuttles. However they’re in any other case optionally available.

American College mentioned masks are optionally available in most locations however required throughout lessons. “Our hope is to in the end attain some extent the place masks may be optionally available within the classroom,” AU officers wrote on Aug. 11.

Howard College mentioned its college might require masks for particular person lessons. The College of Maryland mentioned masks are largely optionally available however, as of Friday, it had not but determined whether or not to require them throughout lessons. George Mason College, in Northern Virginia, mentioned masks are optionally available.

At Trinity Washington College, masks are required indoors. Patricia McGuire, president of the Catholic girls’s faculty, mentioned the campus group has supported the mandate.

Trinity Washington additionally requires vaccination towards the coronavirus.

“Our philosophy right here is to be cautious and to take what we imagine are very prudent actions,” McGuire mentioned. “All people right here is preoccupied with ‘Are we being protected sufficient?’ No one right here, I can let you know, no person resisted masks.”

Catholic College, which neighbors Trinity, has a lot much less restrictive insurance policies. However Catholic mentioned it follows steerage from public well being authorities, together with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.

“All through the pandemic Catholic College has carried out COVID protocols which have each aligned with DC and CDC pointers, and which have labored greatest for our group,” Karna Lozoya, vp for college communications, mentioned in an announcement. “We now have efficiently navigated this pandemic for 2 years, and we are going to proceed to actively monitor COVID in addition to different well being threats as they emerge.”

CDC loosens coronavirus steerage, signaling strategic shift

At GWU, the most important college within the District, greater than 2,700 freshmen had been scheduled to reach in waves beginning on Saturday.

They are going to be required to take part in viral testing after they arrive, however there shall be no ongoing testing mandates throughout the semester. Georgetown has an identical coverage.

GWU officers mentioned their public well being protections had been geared towards offering essentially the most wide-open campus expertise since fall 2019.

“They are going to be capable of have interaction with one another,” mentioned Colette Coleman, GWU’s vice provost for pupil affairs and dean of scholars. “Make mates, socialize within the halls and get acclimated to being a school pupil.”

The college is also celebrating the opening of a renovated first-year dormitory on F Road NW, Thurston Corridor, with 820 beds.

Beforehand within the pandemic, move-in days had been tightly orchestrated, with timed entry to make sure minimal contact amongst teams of individuals and decreased probabilities of viral unfold. In August 2021, Coleman mentioned, move-in was a “traditional-ish faculty expertise.” Many had been merely grateful to have the ability to be on campus.

This yr, there’ll nonetheless be designated arrival intervals. However the two-hour home windows of time for entry will overlap. That can create extra alternatives for mingling.

Schools warn college students of monkeypox danger

GWU officers, like others across the nation, are additionally reminding college students to be on guard towards a brand new risk, monkeypox, which causes painful rashes. That virus can unfold via intimate skin-to-skin contact and call with sheets and towels utilized by contaminated individuals, so the college is urging college students to do their laundry usually.

In comparison with her first two years at GWU, Banks mentioned she feels rather more relaxed. The junior from Brunswick, Maine, is majoring in worldwide affairs and serving to this summer time with pupil orientation.

In her first yr, Banks was one of many only a few college students allowed to dwell in a GWU dorm beginning in January 2021. “I had a single in what was presupposed to be a double,” she recalled. “To say it was a ghost city was an understatement.”

She wore masks in every single place, besides when alone in her room, and she or he had minimal contact with different college students. “It was positively bizarre,” she mentioned. That Might she bought vaccinated on the Walter E. Washington Conference Middle. “I felt like I may lastly breathe.”

College students battle with psychological well being as pandemic drags on

In her second yr, issues opened up rather more. However masks had been nonetheless ubiquitous, she mentioned, and viral testing was necessary as soon as every week. She bought examined twice every week, simply to be cautious. “All of us had an additional sense of objective to verify we had been following covid protocols,” she mentioned. “We knew we didn’t wish to have to return dwelling once more.” But Banks mentioned she and her roommate got here down with much less extreme instances of covid in April and remoted for six days.

Now, Banks is trying ahead to an almost-unfettered yr, together with a deliberate spring semester in Madrid. However she nonetheless plans to hold a masks in every single place and take note of door handles and different surfaces she touches. “I positively take into consideration public well being greater than I ever have in my life,” she mentioned.

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Washington

What Gonzaga’s Mark Few said after win vs. Washington State

Published

1 hour ago

January 12, 2025

Press Room

What Gonzaga’s Mark Few said after win vs. Washington State

The Gonzaga men’s basketball team pulled away from Washington State for an 88-75 victory in the first meeting between the in-state rivals in over a decade.

Graham Ike led the way with 21 points on 8-for-11 from the field, Nolan Hickman added 19 points and the Bulldogs (14-4, 5-0 WCC) earned their fifth straight win to open league play by putting the Cougars (13-5, 3-2 WCC) away early in the second half. After ending the first half on an 8-2 scoring run, the Zags came out of the second half with a sense of urgency on both ends, sparking a 15-5 scoring run to make it a double-digit margin.

Here’s what Gonzaga head coach Mark Few had to say after the game.

On what he told the team at halftime that led to the strong start to the second half:

“I just told them, ‘hey, we’re in a we’re in a battle. It’s a great game. Both teams are competing really hard, and we’re at our best when we’re in attack mode.’ And they did a great job of taking the message and I thought we really went out and turned defense into offense, and we knew that was going to be a big key for us. [The Cougars] are hard to guard, they’re big and they’re physical, and [WSU coach David Riley] does a really lot of nice stuff on on offense that exploits mismatches. But our guys battled tonight, so I was really proud of them.”

On the team’s performance while Ryan Nembhard was on the bench for the final 9 minutes of the first half:

“They played great. I told them that in the locker room that that was huge. We haven’t really had to do that all year. And this guy [Nolan Hickman] stepped up. He was amazing tonight. I mean, seven boards … defensively in there, battling in the post. I mean, he did a lot of stuff that, as I said, he’s now, he set a high standard, so kind of be counting on that moving forward, but he and Dusty [Stromer] both really helped during that stretch and [Khalif Battle] and obviously having Ben [Gregg] and then Graham was rock solid all night.”

On the team’s effort on the defensive end of the floor in the second half:

“I thought our effort and our making plays, I thought it was definitely up there [with the best of the season], and just the physicality that it took. Because, again, they’re so much bigger than us at several of those spots. And again, you just don’t see the post-up thing like this, where your guards are getting constantly posted. But so in that way, we fought, we were physical and kind of had to navigate our way through a lot of different actions. There’s staggers and some curls and some switches and all that. For the most part, we did pretty good.”

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Washington

Washington Nationals Agree to Terms With Former All-Star Reliever

Published

9 hours ago

January 11, 2025

Press Room

Washington Nationals Agree to Terms With Former All-Star Reliever

The Washington Nationals have continued to invest into the pitching staff with another free agency move on Saturday.

Shared on social media, the Nationals announced that they had agreed to terms with relief pitcher Jorge Lopez on a one-year contract. That deal will be worth $3 million plus incentives per Jon Heyman.

This is the third pitcher that Washington has signed this offseason, with Michael Soroka brought in as a free agent and Trevor Williams receiving a new deal to say.

They also added another reliever, Evan Reifert, as a Rule 5 draft pick from the Tampa Bay Rays.

Lopez made headlines last year with his infamous exit from the New York Mets. He caused a stir after a loss when he referred to himself as ‘the worst teammate on the worst team in baseball.’

For a lot of players, that might spell an end to the season. The fastball-heavy reliever was able to bounce back. He was released and then signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs.

The 31-year-old came back from controversy as strong as ever, posting a 2.03 ERA over the final 26.2 innings of work.

With the loss of Kyle Finnegan, Lopez makes sense as a potential replacement at closer. He does have some closing experience, but has not been his main role for much of his career.

That season, 2022, was the year he made his first and only All-Star team.

He is a ground ball machine that loves to force bad contact. Keeping him in a situational role could also be a smart idea, given that he struggles against lefties.

No matter how he is used, this is another good signal that the Nationals don’t want to throw any season away.

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Washington

Michigan basketball vs. Washington prediction: Can U-M stay undefeated in Big Ten?

Published

19 hours ago

January 11, 2025

Press Room

Michigan basketball vs. Washington prediction: Can U-M stay undefeated in Big Ten?

For Michigan basketball, the recent West Coast trip went about as well as hoped.

The No. 24 Wolverines (12-3, 4-0 Big Ten) picked up a pair of double-digit wins against the Big Ten’s Los Angeles-based teams — topping USC, 85-74, last Saturday and then defeating No. 21 UCLA, 94-75, Tuesday night as wildfires raged a few miles away — and now return home looking to make it three consecutive wins against league newcomers, welcoming Washington (10-6, 1-4) to Ann Arbor on Sunday afternoon (2 p.m., Big Ten Network).

The Huskies’ first trip to the Midwest hasn’t started well; they were dog-walked by Michigan State in East Lansing, 88-54, on Thursday. U-W trailed by 29 points at the half (42-13) and by more than 40 points in the second half (82-41 with less than five minutes to play) in an utter annihilation.

After two tight wins in conference play — by three points over Wisconsin and two over Iowa — U-M has won four games in a row by double digits and could make it five straight, with one of the bottom teams in the Big Ten coming to town.

Great Osobor with not-so-great help

U-Dub forward Great Osobor made headlines this offseason when he transferred from Utah State to Washington (following head coach Danny Sprinkle) for a then-record NIL deal worth $2 million.

Apparently, money doesn’t buy wins, because while Osobor has been decent, it hasn’t been nearly enough for the Huskies.

The senior leads the Huskies in scoring (13.8 points per game) and rebounding (8.4) but his efficiency has taken a large drop, as he has shot just 45% from the floor on 3s after hitting at least 57.7% in each of his first three college seasons. Some of that might be attributable to his increased 3-point tries — after attempting just 18 3s (and making four, for a 22.2% success rate) in his first 104 games, he has 14 3-point tries in 16 games this season (with only two makes, a 15.3% rate). More concerning is his 2-point shooting percentage: After hitting 59.1% last season, he’s at 47.7% inside the arc this season.

He has scored in double figures in 11 games with the Huskies, though much of his success came in a weak nonconference schedule. Though he put up 20 points and 14 rebounds vs. Maryland, he had just nine points and three boards vs. USC and a combined 15 points and eight rebounds vs. Illinois and MSU.

Sophomore guard Tyler Harris (Portland) is next at 12.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game while freshman point guard Zoom Diallo, a top-50 recruit according to 247 Sports’ composite rankings, averages 10.8 points per contest for Sprinkle’s team.

Overall, U-Dub is simply not up to Big Ten standard. On defense, the Huskies are No. 7 nationally in limiting 3-pointers (28%) and No. 69 in efficiency (99.9), per KenPom, but on offense, the Huskies are No. 149 in efficiency (107.4), No. 201 in 2-point shooting (50.1%) and No. 240 on 3s (32%).

Depth on display

The Wolverines, meanwhile, continue to flex their depth and balance with each passing game.

Michigan just defeated UCLA by 19 on the road and did so by scoring 94 points (the most a Mick Cronin team has ever allowed at home) without perhaps its most proven guard: Roddy Gayle Jr. (knee bruise) missed Tuesday’s game vs. the Bruins. U-M coach Dusty May said then it was too early to say if he’d play Sunday.

“Long-term health is priority No. 1 for us,” May said. “But I would say he’ll be back relatively soon.”

Gayle is one of five U-M players scoring in double figures for May in his first season in Ann Arbor. After putting up a career-high 36 points vs. the Bruins, center Vlad Goldin now leads the Wolverines at 15.8 points per game. Point guard Tre Donaldson (13.1 points) is next while Danny Wolf, Goldin’s frontcourt partner, averages a double-double at 12.5 points and 10.2 rebounds per game.

All three had standout games on the trip; Wolf started the L.A. double-dip becoming just the third NCAA player in more than 20 years with at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and six blocks, and Donaldson made a career-high four 3-pointers vs. USC, then topped it with six vs. UCLA.

And then there’s Gayle (12.4 points) and Nimari Burnett (10.5 points), who are both shooting better than 50% from the floor. Every starter has led the team in scoring at least once this season, a major reason U-M leads the country in 2-point shooting (62%) and effective field goal percentage (60.2%).

“I mean numbers don’t lie,” Donaldson said. “We’re shooting over 60% inside the arc, I mean just continuing to do that. We got big guys out here … with Danny doing what he does in and out. It’s hard to guard. Nobody’s seen nothing like that before.”

Prediction for Michigan basketball vs. Washington

The Wolverines’ outlook is worlds away from a year ago, when it was often U-M on the wrong side of the talent and coaching ledger. U-M is better than Washington in every facet. As long as the Wolverines don’t have a horrendous shooting night, or commit an egregious number of turnovers (they’re 16th nationally, at 15.2 per game), they just have too much talent and depth for U-Dub to slow down. The pick: U-M 88, Washington 68.

Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.

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