Chapel Hill residents, students fear the return of 29,000 to UNC campus next week
UNC students and Chapel Hill residents pleaded with the university Wednesday to reconsider a decision to reopen the campus next week for the fall semester.
“I’m frankly stunned at the university’s decision to open its doors to in-person classes literally as the pandemic reaches its height,” said Logan Pratico, a Chapel Hill resident and recent UNC graduate.
“The idea that 20,000 18- to 20-year-olds ... will suddenly be walking around Chapel Hill coming from all over the country is frankly terrifying,” he said. “The university should be ashamed of itself for prioritizing student tuition and money over the lives of Chapel Hill citizens.”
Some UNC students already have returned to campus. Others are expected to return in stages starting Monday, and classes will begin Aug. 10. Roughly 57% of the fall semester classes will be online, while students living on campus and attending in-person classes will find physically distanced seating and living arrangements.
UNC Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Bob Blouin noted that UNC is asking students to sign a commitment that they will wear masks, maintain physical distancing, and wash and sanitize their hands regularly. The university is giving each student two masks to start, plus hand sanitizer and a thermometer.
A social media, video and marketing campaign also is underway to reinforce that message, said Kurt Ribisl, chair of the health behavior department in UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Ribisl and Allison Lazard, associate professor in UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, noted that two separate surveys found most students support wearing a mask.
“They don’t want to give COVID-19 to anyone. They want to protect people who are vulnerable, people in their community … and they really want to protect their families,” Lazard said.
Students living off campus
But what UNC’s roughly 29,000 students will do when they leave campus to go home, go to work or visit shops and restaurants is what keeps Orange County’s elected officials and residents on edge.
Blouin told the Town Council Wednesday night that students who don’t uphold their commitment to the “Community Standards” could be banned from campus or unenrolled from a course or the university, depending on the violation.
However, UNC has very little authority to ensure students living off campus, including fraternities and sororities, follow the rules, Blouin said. They have been coordinating with Greek organizations and the Chapel Hill Police Department, he noted.
The town is concerned about the safety of all residents, including UNC students, Mayor Pam Hemminger and Council member Michael Parker said. Off-campus housing is a particular concern, because several students often live together in close quarters, Parker said.
“In the case of students, in the case of these large, off-campus houses, we need to be more than just complaint driven. I think that we need to have some active monitoring so that we don’t wait for things to be bad,” he said.
Ribisl suggested having someone check on neighborhoods where large groups of students typically live. Council member Amy Ryan recommended updating the university’s Community Standards to emphasize that the requirements also apply to off-campus locations.
Parties without masks reported
Off-campus parties — without masks and social distancing — have popped up throughout the summer in Chapel Hill. Commissioners Chair Penny Rich said those parties, combined with the growing number of young people hanging out and drinking late at night, are what prompted Orange County to recently end dine-in restaurant service and alcohol sales after 10 p.m.
Diane Bloom, an adjunct professor in UNC’s School of Public Health, said she has seen parents complaining more recently in an online chat that their children’s roommates are making plans for parties in their suites or dorm rooms when they return to campus.
Neighbors also are seeing large parties and students gathered in large groups without masks in the Northside community, said George Barrett, executive director of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center.
The neighborhood, a few blocks from downtown, is a traditionally African-American community that has experienced a large influx of student housing in the last 30 years. Many longtime residents are older and more vulnerable to COVID-19, he said, and they have been “models of how we are supposed to act and the behavior we are supposed to have during this time.”
“This is a public health issue. This is a racial equity issue,” Barrett said. “If students are not wearing masks and are gathering in large masses and spreading the disease, that is affecting Black neighbors, that is affecting Black residents, and if there’s not accountability and enforcement from the university and the town, then all these protests and things that have been happening for racial equality are for naught.”
COVID-19 treatment, tracking
UNC staff and faculty share those concerns and have pushed for online-only classes, including some who joined over 5,700 UNC system faculty members in an online petition this summer. Nearly 500 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate students also petitioned university administrators to keep classes online and the campus closed.
Several factors would be weighed in deciding whether to close the campus, Blouin noted, including the number of positive local and campus cases, and what the UNC System president and the Board of Governors have to say about it.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services had reported 117,850 positive coronavirus cases and 1,850 deaths statewide as of noon Wednesday. More than 1,200 cases and 45 deaths had been reported in Orange County.
Roughly 14% of the state’s positive cases have involved people ages 18 to 24, while another 63% involved people ages 25 to 64, state data showed.
UNC students, faculty and staff who test positive for COVID-19 would notify Campus Health or the Employee Occupational Health Clinic. The Orange County Health Department would be notified and work with the university to track people who may have been in contact with an infected person, Blouin said.
If there is a cluster of cases, as happened when 37 UNC football players and staff were infected in July, the public would be notified, he said. The university is planning an online dashboard to track data about positive cases, testing and more, he said.
At least 164 beds in two residence halls also have been set aside to isolate or quarantine students living on campus who test positive, and a third dorm is possible, Blouin said. The university would track students living off campus to ensure they can isolate at home or have someone look after them, he said.
“I don’t think that we can deny the fact that we’re going to have cases. We already have had cases, even beyond the student-athletes. The question is, can we manage those cases in a very safe and effective way,” Blouin said.
Staff writers Kate Murphy and Will Doran contributed to this story.
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 7:45 AM.
