BY KURT MARTONE, NEWS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
Before the start of the men’s and women’s basketball seasons, St. Bonaventure University sent out an email to all members of the campus community, reminding them to wear a mask when attending Bonnies games inside the Reilly Center.
“To all members of the campus community, please abide by the safety protocols we’ve established for all ticket holders at Bonnies games and wear your masks if you’re in attendance, unless you’re actively eating or drinking,” the email sent on Nov. 5 said.
The university decided to implement the mask policy inside of the Reilly Center and for other large events months before the start of the season. St. Bonaventure was able to stop short of a vaccine requirement.
In New York State venues with more than 5,000 people in attendance must require proof of vaccination on entry. The Reilly Center has an arena capacity of 5,480 people, so the university has missed out on some ticket sales, especially during the opening two men’s basketball home games.
“It didn’t take much to get below 5,000,” said Tom Missel, the chief communications officer at St. Bonaventure. “Things in the county were not really in crisis mode at that point. We thought in an abundance of caution, at least we will implement a mask mandate.”
Despite the mandate, many attendees at Bonnies basketball games have been maskless; students most glaringly, given their close proximity to the court.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised. The reality is, it’s not fair to target students,” said Missel, the co-chair of the COVID-19 task force. “There are a number of people I saw, especially in the blue section, that were not masked and some in the reds.”
Missel said that in the upper level red sections, there is a 75 percent mask compliance. In the student sections, that number is likely 5 to 10 percent.
“I know there was an article written in the local paper about it, but it isn’t fair to target students. The one thing that comforts us about students is that we know their vaccination status. The vast majority of them are vaccinated and the vast majority of them are sitting together,” said Missel. “We don’t know that necessarily about the people in the stands.”
Andre Gibson, a junior finance major at St. Bonaventure, is one of the few students who complied with the mask mandate.
“I think that if I can do my part to be able to enjoy this atmosphere with everybody else in this community, I think that’s great. That’s why I follow procedures,” said Gibson. “A piece of cloth is better than nothing.”
The COVID-19 task force met two days after the men’s home opener against Siena College.
“A handful of people there reached out and were not happy with the way it went,” Missel said.
With only a few days to go before the next home game, the COVID-19 Task Force decided to ramp up the public service announcements about the mask requirement at the game against Canisius, played Sunday.
“I did sense that compliance was somewhat better in the seated areas, but I didn’t really sense much more compliance in the student section,” said Missel.
Due to the non-compliance, the university is currently considering amending its current policy.
St. Bonaventure officials discussed this at length Wednesday during their senior executive management meeting.
Even though mask compliance is lower than the university wants, they are not considering shifting to a vaccination requirement at the moment.
“I think that would be a public relations nightmare,” said Missel.
The COVID-19 task force is expected to consider a policy change during its upcoming meeting on Monday. It is considering moving to a mask requirement only for unvaccinated individuals.
This policy would mostly effect off-campus ticket holders. As of Wednesday, the vaccination rate in Cattaraugus county was 46 percent.
If the university removes its mask mandate for basketball games, “I wouldn’t wear one,” said Gibson.
While there are seven active cases on campus as of Wednesday, Missel said that none of the cases were connected to the start of the basketball season.
martonkd18@bonaventure.edu
