Cook said students will be reported and investigated the same way they would for any violation of the student conduct policy. Baylor’s face mask policy was updated to exclude vented masks, gaiter masks and bandanas, based on updated CDC guidelines.

“Our first stage is always education,” Cook said.

Sloane Guthrie, a senior studying integrative studies, said she wasn’t entirely surprised when videos of students standing in close proximity made it to Twitter and TikTok, but she was surprised to see they were doing so without masks.

“I was kind of shocked, because there’s reminders everywhere on campus about masks,” Guthrie said. “I wish everybody would just follow the guidelines so that we don’t get shut down in two weeks, you know, like a lot of other schools are.”

Guthrie said the first day of class was different, and everyone she saw during the first day of class was masked unless they were eating or drinking. She said as strange as it is to not be able to read her fellow students’ facial expressions and sit in classrooms where taped-off chairs enforce social distancing, she recognizes the need for those measures.

“It’s a little different, but it’s good to be back and actually have a semester,” Guthrie said.

Guthrie said her mandatory mail-in nasal swab test arrived at her home roughly a week after it was supposed to, but her results came in within 72 hours of taking it and mailing it back in. Other students had to take their test on campus when the test did not arrive on time, or in other extenuating circumstances.