A bill passed through a state House subcommittee last week that would prohibit colleges and universities from requiring students and staff to wear face masks when off campus.

District 84 Representative Joe Mitchell (R) of Wayland is vice chair of the state government committee that drafted the legislation. Mitchell says he’s heard stories of students being “disciplined” for not wearing face coverings when off campus, which he thinks universities or colleges don’t have the jurisdiction to do so. Mitchell responds to whether this legislation may cause post-secondary institutions to move to entirely virtual learning in mitigating COVID-19, “That could be a possibility but we’ve seen the cases and fatality rates of the virus steadily go down here recently and we’re having more people get vaccinated and there’s more access to the vaccination. So I think it’s time that universities don’t have the power to be able to mandate this off campus, and they have all the right in the world to encourage and educate students to do that off campus if they wish, which I think they should do.”

House Study Bill 162 follows Governor Kim Reynolds signing a law that requires all K-12 schools to offer total in-person learning. As of February 5th the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities have filed lobby declarations against the bill, while other organizations including the State of Iowa Board of Regents and Iowa Department of Public Health are undecided. You can hear more from Representative Mitchell during today’s Halcyon House Washington Page on air and at kciiradio.com.