Mayor Aboutaleb: Introduce a face mask policy at the EUR

The mayor’s spokesperson told EM that Mayor Aboutaleb ‘urgently advises the EUR’ to introduce a voluntarily face mask policy inside indoor areas. The Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences had already announced on Wednesday that it would be introducing a face mask requirement. The EUR has not followed suit yet. For the time being, students and staff are still free to voluntarily wear a mask if they want.

“We are taking the urgent health advisory of the government to wear voluntarily face masks in indoor areas extremely seriously”, says a spokesperson for the Executive Board. “We are in discussions with each other within the framework of the VSNU (The Association of Universities in the Netherlands, ed.) to adopt a united stance on this as universities. Obviously, anyone can decide for themselves if they want to wear a face mask at the Erasmus University Rotterdam locations.”

The urgent health advisory on face masks has already been heeded inside the Erasmus University College building for some time now. EM also recently reported on this.

As to when it will be compulsory to wear face masks at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences is not clear yet. The house rules must be amended first, and the the representative advisory board has to vote on this. Until then, the school strongly recommends that face masks be worn in corridors, restaurants and public spaces. Although this recommendation does not apply to classrooms, according to the press release. “Actually, wearing face masks should be the health advisory for everyone in the region, for all places wherever lots of people get together”, Mayor Aboutaleb said in response to the press release. According to his spokesperson, this urgent health advisory is also directed towards the EUR, which up until now has basically followed the VSNU line that universities are not deemed as public spaces.

Since 6 pm Tuesday evening, the urgent health advisory is to wear a face mask in indoor public spaces in the Rotterdam region 1 and elsewhere. The university informed students and staff on Tuesday about this as follows: “University buildings are not indoor public spaces, and this is why we do not obligate students and staff to wear face masks. Any eventual supplemental instructions from the Safety Region authorities will, of course, be heeded.” The Rotterdam-Rijnmond Safety Region states that it cannot impose this as a mandatory measure, yet strongly underlines the urgent national health advisory that face masks should be worn in indoor public spaces.