In an email to students and faculty on Thursday morning, Auburn University announced it will reinstate its policy to require people on campus to wear face coverings outdoors in addition to the existing indoor requirement, effective Monday, Dec. 14.

The policy will be in place "until further notice and extends to the entire campus" with exceptions in areas clearly marked with signage, according to the University.

Prior to the announcement, the policy was mentioned in Provost Bill Hardgrave's second virtual town hall on Tuesday afternoon over Zoom.

"We're going to ask that the outside mask mandate be reinstated," Hardgrave said to faculty in the meeting. "We had loosened that last semester. That should help because a lot of people don't wear their mask outside, and they walk into a building and either they don't have it with them or they forget to put it on."

The same policy was put into place on Aug. 19, the third day of fall 2020 classes, but it was later rescinded on Sept. 28.