University Students Raise Their Fists Over COVID Restrictions

There was a time when young people were fired up to fight for their rights.

America’s entertainment apparatus was emboldening:

But as the saying goes, “rock ‘n’ roll ain’t what it used to be.”

Case in point: a student rally at the University of Iowa.

As relayed by Cedar Rapids outlet Little Village, last Thursday, around four dozen attendees held a “die-in.”

Approximately 50 young adults pretended to perish in protest of the school’s COVID constraints.

Their beef: The adolescents want more — not fewer — restrictions.

As laid out by Little Village:

The die-in protest was organized by Campaign to Organize Graduate Students (COGS), the union that represents graduate student workers at the university. Protesters laid down on the Pentacrest’s sidewalk, as COGS members drew chalk outlines of their bodies.

Sociocultural anthropology doctoral candidate Caleb Klipowicz voiced concern:

“COGS is here to demand better COVID policies across campus. Things like vaccine and mask mandates as well as creating alternatives for teaching and learning online, other things that will save lives, prevent disease.”

Some may find it a curious choice.

As reported by the CDC, the survival rates for COVID-19 — before the first vaccine was ever administered — were as follows:

0-19 years: 99.997%

20-49 years: 99.98%

Nonetheless, Caleb led a chant:

“What do we want!”

“Mask mandates!”

“When do we want it?”

“Now!”

“And if we don’t get it, shut it down!”

Contemporarily, safety’s a common college theme.

Witness the refrain shouted to Ben Shapiro a while back:

At the die-in, Master of Fine Arts student Rob Ascher remembered through a megaphone last week’s less-than-fantastic first day of class:

“In the rhetoric department, I come in, and there’s not a single student wearing a mask. That ain’t right. I go into my classroom. If it’s a good day, half of my students are wearing a mask.”

And don’t get him started on sports:

“There’s a football game this weekend. That’s a super spreader and a half.”

In a rousing role reversal, it’s the college administration that’s insubordinate.

Despite Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague’s August 19th mask mandate, U of I is holding out.

But there’s good reason; courtesy of a school statement:

The University of Iowa strongly encourages the use of face masks on campus, especially in all classroom settings and during in-person office hours.

However, as a state agency, we are expected to comply with state law and the guidance of our governing body, the Board of Regents, State of Iowa.

Little Village explains:

The Board of Regents, which sets policy for the state’s three pubic universities, decided earlier this year not to allow UI, Iowa State University or the University of Northern Iowa to require mask-wearing or that students, faculty or staff be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Back to Caleb’s call for a vaccine mandate, such seems to propose two conflicting ideas:

The unvaccinated need to get vaccinated (because the vaccine works).

The vaccinated are at risk from the unvaccinated (because the vaccine doesn’t work).

But maybe I’m misinterpreting the message.

Either way, many educational institutions across the country are taking up the University of Iowa’s slack:

College Forces Students to Get Vaccinated or Pay Over a Grand as a ‘Health and Safety’ Fee

University Will Punish Unvaccinated Students by Cutting Their Internet Service

University Announces Fall’s ‘Full Reopening,’ Which Will Require Vaccinated Teens to Still Wear Masks

Of course, those unhappy with UI can transfer to a more cautious college.

Perhaps Iowa State is more palatable:

University Professor on ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ Panel Announces She Keeps Away From White People

University Trains Orientation Leaders to See Students as ‘Agents of Oppression’ or ‘Targets’

With Students in Crisis, a Professor Leaps to Their Aid: We Need More Trigger Warnings

Then again, the die-in could do the job.

UI might follow the folks in Philadelphia:

Not a Joke: Philadelphia Mayor Announces Double-Mask Mandate
https://t.co/2Ef2VNFqbE

— RedState (@RedState) August 13, 2021

But as of now, make no mistake: For some students in the home state of John Wayne, a demand to be mandatorily masked and necessarily needled…is the new Rebel Yell.

-ALEX