UNL student government secures masks for all

The initial plans called for around 550 masks. What actually happened is much better.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – It’s usually not a good sign when a discussion is tabled, but in this case, it signified something even better was about to happen. The student government at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was prepared to spend student fees on N95 or KN95 masks.

“The original bill that I had on the table was allocating $500”, recalls ASUN Internal Vice President Taylor Jarvis, “which would have purchased about 550 masks at a cost of 88 cents per mask.”

Why settle, though, for a little more than 500 masks when you can get 300 times that amount, and without spending student fees to do so? Thus, Jarvis tabled the proposal to do some more digging.

“Initially we really didn’t think that was something that would be possible”, she says. “We kind of threw a Hail Mary to the state to try to get our request approved, and they ended up approving it. It was a very elated phone call that I got.”

That request to the State of Nebraska was able to secure 150,000 KN95 masks, enough for everybody at UNL to get four each. Distribution began a little over a week ago, and remember, this didn’t cost the student government a dime.

“Especially since that money is coming directly from students”, says Jarvis, “we want to make sure that we’re spending it responsibly.”

Carrying out that mission is satisfying on its own, but Jarvis gets some extra satisfaction from the sheer scope of things.

“I would say it’s probably the proudest accomplishment of my term thus far as internal vice president”, Jarvis says, “to be able to so completely impact every single person in our Husker community.”

She does mean everyone. If you’ve already been doing the math, you’ll know that 150,000 masks, given out at a rate of four per person, amounts to far more than the UNL student population. To that end, every staff and faculty member is able to get a share of the masks as well.