By Georgiana Scott, Deputy Editor
The University of Bristol have ordered 75,000 transparent plastic face visors for students and staff to wear during in-person teaching and in certain spaces around campus.
Each student will be provided with two visors upon their return to campus which they will need to wear for all in-person teaching activities.
If a student attempts to attend their seminars without a face shield, they will be refused entry and advised to get one from a collection point on campus.
A University of Bristol spokesperson told Epigram ‘Wearing a visor is a key measure for keeping students safe so they will need to wear one whenever they have in-person teaching.
‘A visor should be considered as important as bringing your phone or laptop onto Campus.’
They will also have to be worn in outside teaching spaces where students congregate before or after teaching.
The visors have been ordered from Senior Aerospace BWT, who provide them for frontline NHS staff.
New students staying in halls of residencies will collect their visor and mask at their accommodation check-in, for which they must be wearing a face covering.
Freshers staying in private accommodation will need to book an appointment to collect their visor from various points on campus and returning students will need to collect their visors before 5 October from a collection point decided by their faculty.
Those returning after 5 October will need to contact the university's Information Point.
In response to the health and safety announcement, a Bristol University theatre student said: ‘I feel like if they are turning people away from classes who don’t have visors. We’re going to end up with a lot of students missing out on teaching hours unnecessarily.
‘Also, all students should have received an email laying out these new rules but it seems only a few people have even heard about them.
‘You don’t tend to see people wearing them in public so it seems strange that we should need them for classes where we’re already distanced.’
Also responding to the update, Lauren Dean, third year neuroscience student stated, ‘I really don’t mind wearing a visor to attend in-person teaching.
‘At the end of the day, it’s just a bit of clear plastic over your face, and if that’s the measure the Uni is taking in order to get us into the lecture theatres, then so be it.’
The announcement comes the same week that researchers at the University of Bristol have said cutting face-to-face teaching will be the most effective way of preventing the spread of the virus
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons / Heliox Lab
What do you think about wearing face visors on campus? Let us know
