COVID-19 Concerns Prompt UNC Faculty to Tell Students to Stay Home
“We need to stay safe from Covid-19 by staying at home – and we need you to stay home in order to protect yourselves and your fellow students, your teachers, the many workers who serve you on campus…”
CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina — Thirty tenured faculty members at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) published an open letter to undergraduate students on Friday asking them to not attend in-person classes so they will not be infected with the coronavirus.
“We need to stay safe from Covid-19 by staying at home – and we need you to stay home in order to protect yourselves and your fellow students, your teachers, the many workers who serve you on campus, the residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and your own family members and loved ones,” the faculty members said in a letter that was published by the Charlotte Observer.
In May, UNC-CH said it would begin the 2020-2021 academic year on August 10, reports Newsweek. The school said it would offer face-to-face classes, online classes or a hybrid of the two models, depending on a student’s preference.
The faculty members’ letter said that this plan was based on a faulty assumption about the pandemic… “that a ‘first’ viral wave in spring would be followed only by a (hopefully) smaller ‘second’ wave in fall and winter. Now the country’s oldest public university must not repeat the tragic errors of this summer by reopening too quickly and completely.”
UNC-CH issued a statement in response to the letter, saying that it is as “flexible as guidance allows for those who need to teach, work or learn away from campus,” reports Inside Higher Ed.
In July, many states experienced a significant increase in infections, hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus… an indication that the first wave of infections has not passed. More than 2,000 North Carolinians and more than 156,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 so far.
Other American college campuses that opened in June and July have experienced spikes in infections due to fraternity parties, including Greek organizations at the University of California at Berkeley and Ole Miss.
One high school in Indiana that was open for only two days last week was forced to close its doors and move all of its students to distance learning for at least a week due to staff members testing positive for the virus, reports the New York Times.
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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