CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Faculty at Iowa’s public universities are demanding the right to require masks in their classrooms regardless of state law or policies against them.

Biology professor Steve O’Kane Jr. has pushed a resolution among colleagues at the University of Northern Iowa saying faculty should be allowed to manage their classrooms. O’Kane told The Cedar Rapids Gazette that he has already imposed a mask mandate for his students and lowers their lab grades if they refuse to comply.

Northern Iowa, the University of Iowa and Iowa State University sent petitions last month to the state Board of Regents signed by hundreds of faculty asking for the ability to require masks and vaccines.

Board of Regents President Mike Richards in May barred administrators from requiring masks or vaccines.