Oxford and Lafayette County Schools are still required to wear masks on campus, and the University of Mississippi is joining them.

In a letter to the campus community on Wednesday night, Ole Miss Chancellor Glenn Boyce announced the university will still require all people to wear masks or facial coverings for the remainder of the spring semester in classroom and office settings.

Masks will still be required while walking through public spaces in residence halls, dining facilities, the Ole Miss Student Union, campus recreation centers, retail spaces and other on-campus facilities.

“Our community has done a tremendous job of adopting and adhering to our university protocols to limit spread of the virus, and those protocols continue to work effectively,” Boyce said. “We look for forward to getting vaccines on campus to administer to faculty, staff and students, which may offer future opportunities to reevaluate our approach.”

In outdoor areas on campus, including The Grove, social distancing of at least six feet continues to be strongly recommended as well as wearing a mask when people cannot maintain distance, unless the protocols for the outdoor venue differ.

The letter stated implications of Governor Tate Reeves’ latest Executive Order for off-campus student events will be forthcoming and will be communicated directly to registered student organizations.

On Tuesday, Reeves removed all county mask mandates in his latest order, which went into effect at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. The Oxford Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to follow the order and repeal their nearly year-long mask mandate inside Oxford city limits.