UNC Students Saw Failure of Live Classes Before School Did

(Bloomberg) -- When the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced Monday afternoon that it would pivot to remote classes just a week after school began, many students said it was no surprise.

UNC, with more than 19,000 undergraduates, was one of the biggest colleges to attempt in-person learning, and it did so without requiring students be tested when they arrived. The on-campus health center tested students free, but only on weekdays. Masks and social distancing were encouraged, and dorms were held to 60% capacity and classroom seats to 30%.

Within the first week, the rate at which tests came back positive leaped to 13.6% from 2.8% as 135 new cases were diagnosed. The dorms designated to quarantine students awaiting results filled so quickly that just 5% capacity remained by Monday.

Senior class president Chris Suggs, who observed an open faculty meeting to discuss the move to remote learning, said it was ridiculous to think the faculty and leadership weren’t aware of what would happen.

“They had to,” Suggs said. “The rest of us could see clear as day that a mass return to campus like this would be so dangerous.”

Provost Bob Blouin said “I don’t apologize for trying” during the emergency faculty meeting Monday evening.

Colleges across the U.S. are bracing for the return of students, acclimating to another semester online and everything in between. Many students crave interactions with friends and campus experiences, even with masks, temperature checks and outdoor dining halls. Some schools like UNC asked students to return earlier than a typical academic year, and the results haven’t gone as planned, raising alarms even as other colleges continue to welcome students back.

On Tuesday, two other large schools also reversed plans for in-person instruction. Notre Dame University, which welcomed students back to campus earlier this month, announced that it’s moving to virtual instruction for two weeks after a spike in positive tests. Michigan State University said on its website that it’s transitioning to remote learning, asking students who planned to live on campus this fall to stay home.

‘Die-In’ Protest

Before UNC’s classes began, professors and staff asked the university to reconsider. Students held protests, including one they called a “die-in.” The health director for Orange County, where Chapel Hill is located, called on the university not to reopen for at least five weeks. Faculty weren’t informed of that and said at a meeting before classes began that they felt blindsided.

Student leaders like senior Tamiya Troy, who is president of the UNC Black Student Movement, have spent months arguing against a return to campus. Troy said she’s frustrated not only with the administration’s disregard for her organization’s concerns, but with its reaction to the shutdown.

“They’re not taking responsibility right now,” Troy said. “They’ve basically just given themselves a pat on the back for trying, when in reality we shouldn’t have tested this at all.”

UNC reported four clusters of Covid-19 outbreaks, including one in the largest first-year residence hall and one in an off-campus fraternity house. The school said it expects most undergraduates living on campus to “change their residential plans for the fall.” Only those with hardships such as lack of internet access, international students and student athletes, for whom testing was required, can remain, according to a campus-wide letter from Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz.

Though move-out proceedings began Monday night, a downpour kept most students in. The university hasn’t said anything about pausing classes.

ACC Plans?

“As much as we believe we have worked diligently to help create a healthy and safe campus living and learning environment, the current data presents an untenable situation,” Guskiewicz said in the letter. The UNC press office declined to comment beyond his letter.

Guskiewicz said in the faculty meeting that “we’ve decided to wait a while before making decisions” on athletics. The school’s basketball team is a flagship for the school, a touchstone for alumni -- and a magnet for their donations.

Garrison Brooks, a junior who plays on the basketball team, questioned keeping student athletes on campus, tweeting “Are we immune to this virus because we play a sport?”

It’s unclear how UNC’s move to online learning may affect fall sports for its Atlantic Coast Conference, which had planned to go ahead with football.

The ACC, along with the Big 12 and Southeastern Conference, have taken divergent paths from the Big Ten and Pac-12, which announced last week that they’re postponing sports until next year.

“We are pleased with the protocols being administrated on our 15 campuses,” the ACC said in an emailed statement Monday. “We understand the need to stay flexible and be prepared to adjust as medical information and the landscape evolves.”

The National Collegiate Athletic Association said Monday that it would lay out plans for the basketball season next month.

Campus Health

Meanwhile, getting tested hasn’t been easy for students. Lines stretched out of the Campus Health building for the free weekday tests last week. And while weekend tests weren’t free -- first-year student Finn Kerns said he paid $50 on Saturday -- that’s when demand surged. By the time the school ended in-person teaching, 954 students had been tested.

The school has since waived the weekend fee.

Caitlin Romig-Koch, in her first year, went to Campus Health on Saturday to get a test at 4 p.m., six hours after a friend got tested after developing symptoms, including muscle aches and a sore throat.

In that intervening period, turnaround time for results rose to as long as four days from 24 to 48 hours. Romig-Koch said she now wishes she’d gotten her test off campus as it would have given her “a bit of autonomy.”

Romig-Koch didn’t want her parents exposed, because her father is diabetic. “Worst case scenario, my parents come pick me up, and I get symptoms later and give it to them and they die,” she said.

Campus Health suggested she move to a quarantine dorm designated for students awaiting test results, where she arrived about noon Sunday. She said she hasn’t seen any sign that anyone is supervising residents there and that people are ordering in food.

The mood is confusion and panic, Romig-Koch said: “Everything is vague in terms of rules, but that’s the ‘Carolina Way.’”

‘Truly Damaging’

Romig-Koch said she suspects she was exposed at a dining hall where students take off masks to eat. Despite employees trying to keep capacity down, she said “too many” people were allowed in and that social distancing was difficult during peak hours.

For Suggs, the senior class president, remote instruction won’t mean having to move -- he lives off-campus in nearby Durham -- but the whole situation feels “embarrassing.”

“This is truly damaging to our reputation, damaging to our character and physically damaging to students and the community here in North Carolina,” he said.

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