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By Lucas Thomae
On Saturday, Jan. 23, East Carolina University announced a cluster of COVID-19 cases within Alpha Omicron Pi sorority.
A cluster is defined by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services as five or more COVID-19 cases in close proximity to each other. This is the first cluster associated with Greek life that has been reported at ECU this semester. ECU reported a total of 26 clusters last year, 15 of them associated with Greek life organizations. ECU’s large number of cases eventually forced them to go completely virtual and have students move off campus back in August. In an effort to avoid a repeat of the fall, the school is implementing a more rigorous testing program and students living on campus will be in single-person dorms. According to ECU’s COVID-19 Dashboard, there have been 122 new student cases in the past seven days. ECU has reported two other clusters in 2021, one connected to the baseball team and the other to the men’s basketball team. This most recent cluster is the first to be reported since spring classes started on Jan. 19. ● The Recommended Content Widget will appear here on the published site.
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By NC College Beat Staff
On Saturday, NC State notified the university community through its WolfAlert notification system that a COVID-19 cluster had been identified within the SKEMA program on Centennial Campus.
A cluster is defined by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services as five or more COVID-19 cases in close proximity to each other. This is the first cluster that NC State has identified since the start of spring semester classes on Jan. 19. The SKEMA business school is a globally-focused research and business institution offering both undergraduate and graduate international business programs at NC State’s Centennial Campus, a research park located just below South Campus. Exact details have not been provided by NC State regarding the status of students or staff members involved in the cluster. Since the start of on-campus move-in on Jan. 16 to Jan. 21, NC State has reported 156 total positive cases, according to their COVID-19 data tracker. During that time span, the number of available quarantine beds has dropped from 278 to 253, a decrease of 25. The school’s data tracker is only updated on Tuesdays and Fridays, so any potential changes from this recent cluster have yet to be reported. ● The Recommended Content Widget will appear here on the published site.
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By Lucas Thomae and Owen Sizemore
With the spring semester ready to get underway, NC College Beat is taking a look at how some of the major schools across the state are approaching students’ return to campus. Some institutions have completely overhauled their COVID-19 protocols with extensive testing programs, while others are maintaining the status quo.
Terms to Know Entry Testing/Prior-to-Arrival Testing: A policy that requires students to get tested for COVID-19, either on-campus or at another healthcare provider, prior to moving on campus. Surveillance Testing/Mitigation Testing: A testing strategy that involves selecting random samples of on-campus students and testing them for COVID-19, regardless of whether or not these students have any symptoms of the virus. Typically, if a positive result is found, more testing will take place among the residence hall where it was found. Wastewater Testing: A testing strategy that involves testing wastewater samples from residence halls to find traces of COVID-19. If COVID-19 is found, the students of the residence hall will undergo further testing, whether symptomatic or not. UNC Chapel Hill Move-in: Jan. 13 First Day of Classes: Jan. 19 First Day of In-Person Classes: Feb. 8 After students were forced off campus just 3 weeks after move-in last fall, UNC is strengthening its COVID-19 protocols for the spring. All students living on campus or in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area must show proof of a negative COVID-19 test prior to arrival. Students living on campus will be regularly tested twice a week, while students living in off-campus housing will be tested once weekly. In addition, all residence halls will only have single-occupancy dorms. NC State University Move-in: Jan. 16-18 First Day of Classes (Including In-Person): Jan. 19 NC State also sent on-campus students back home after a spike of COVID-19 cases early into the fall semester. Similar to UNC Chapel Hill’s spring plans, NC State will require prior-to-arrival testing and dorms will be single-occupancy. All students living on campus will be subject to weekly surveillance testing. UNC Charlotte Move-in: Feb. 18-21 unless granted an exemption First Day of Classes: Jan. 20 First Day of In-Person Classes: Feb. 22 Following a conservative and relatively successful fall semester with limited in-person instruction and a delayed move-in, UNC Charlotte informed students of a modified spring schedule on Jan. 11. Charlotte will conduct random group mitigation testing on a weekly basis for two phases of students. The first, Phase 1, includes students with an early-move in exemption and students with a meal plan; their mitigation testing will begin in January. Phase 2 students, which includes all other students making a return to campus to live, take classes, or work, will begin their testing once in-person instruction resumes. The university is also continuing its policy of single-occupancy housing and wastewater testing across all of its residence halls. UNC Wilmington Move-in: Jan. 15, 16, 19 First Day of Classes (Including In-Person): Jan. 20 After cases started to rise last fall, UNC Wilmington moved to de-densify their campus by shifting to single occupancy rooms. This semester, dorms are not single-occupancy but prior-to-arrival testing is required. Once on campus, there will be weekly surveillance testing and wastewater testing. Students will wear wristbands as proof of their negative tests.
East Carolina
Move-in: Jan. 14 First Day of Classes (Including In-Person): Jan. 19 ECU had one of the highest COVID-19 case counts of any institution in the country last semester. To avoid another disaster, ECU is implementing new measures this spring, most notably tri-weekly wastewater testing In addition, the school is requiring prior-to-arrival testing and dorm rooms will be single occupancy. Appalachian State University Move-in: Jan. 28-31 First Day of Classes: Jan. 19 First Day of In-Person Classes: Feb. 1 Appalachian State’s approach to the spring 2021 semester is markedly different from that of the fall, with the university taking much more precaution than it did last term. Similar to UNC Charlotte, in-person living and instruction will take place several weeks after the first day of classes. Students living on campus are required to submit a negative COVID-19 test result before they move in, with periodic surveillance testing occurring throughout the semester. However, single-occupancy housing will not be implemented within the dorms. Western Carolina University Move-in: Feb. 6 First Day of Classes: Jan. 25 First Day of In-Person Classes: Feb. 18 WCU, like many other universities, is taking a much more proactive approach toward minimizing the risk of initial spikes and clusters on campus. They have elected to delay the start of on-campus living and instruction until Feb. 6 and 18, respectively. They will also require students to get tested for COVID-19 prior to move-in. NC A&T State University Move-in: Jan. 21 for new students, Jan. 22-24 for continuing students First Day of Classes (Including In-Person: Jan. 25) After a fall of relatively low case numbers, NC A&T is treating this semester relatively similar to the last. Dorm rooms will not be single occupancy, but each returning student was mailed a COVID-19 test to take and send back to the school before moving in. UNC Greensboro Move-in: Jan. 13-18 First Day of Classes (Including In-Person): Jan. 19 UNCG continues its moderate approach to COVID-19 following a quiet semester and overall low case numbers. Students were required to be tested prior to moving on campus, and surveillance testing will also be implemented throughout the semester. Duke University Move-in: Jan. 14-20 First Day of Classes (Including In-Person): Jan. 20 Duke was one of the few universities in North Carolina to engage in both entry and surveillance testing throughout their fall semester, and as such, their plans have not changed much. The only major difference between Duke’s fall and spring will be that Upperclassmen will also be living and learning on campus this semester, potentially presenting a new challenge for the university in terms of handling potential cases and clusters. Wake Forest University Move-in: Jan. 23-26 First Day of Classes (Including In-Person): Jan. 27 Wake Forest’s spring plan falls in the middle of the pack in many ways: though their move-in and class start dates have changed, the school will continue a mix of in-person, hybrid and online courses come Jan. 27. Wake Forest utilized surveillance testing throughout the fall semester and will continue to do so in the spring. However, there has been no mention of entry testing for students returning to campus. ● The Recommended Content Widget will appear here on the published site.
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By ShanaRose Johnson
Charlotte, N.C. -- On Jan. 11, UNC Charlotte Chancellor Sharon Gaber released a statement to the Niner Nation with some upsetting news. Not only had spring semester move-ins been moved back to February, but spring break had also been moved a month forward from its original date.
Instead of starting on March 18, Charlotte’s spring break will now begin Feb. 18. Not many students were happy to hear this news, among them Sophomore Nick Stone, who took his concerns to the next level by starting a petition on Change.org to move the break back to a later date. “I think it’s inconsiderate to all the plans that people have already made that cannot be refunded,” he said. “Given its placement beforehand, it gives a break for students after midterms. But [moving it up] two and a half weeks past the syllabus week seems pointless.” So far, over 1,900 students have signed to Stone’s petition. UNCC freshmen Olivia Fey and Lance Bumgardner both signed the petition after discovering it on Instagram and Facebook. “I signed it because people have travel plans that can’t be cancelled last minute or rescheduled,” Fey said. “And we aren't going to need a break in February after being off for a month, we’ll need one in spring as originally intended.” Bumgardner echoed similar sentiments about the change. “I think the break is too early and more kids will get burnt out later in the semester,” he said. Both students agree that the change won’t necessarily affect COVID-19 case numbers at Charlotte. “Most students won’t travel anyways [due to the pandemic],” Bumgardner said. “Honestly, I don't see how the decision is going to affect covid cases,” Fey added. On the other hand, Freshman Lily Boaz disagrees. “I didn't sign it because I think it's more complaining and that I think signing it won’t do anything anyways,” she said. “I think the faculty and decision-makers here at UNCC are doing the best they can with how uncertain things are going right now.” While students take their sides on the matter, the real question is what will UNCC’s response be? In the original announcement to Niner Nation on the 11th, Chancellor Gaber stated that the school's Student Government Association overwhelmingly advocated having a break, especially after the fall semester’s end on Dec. 23. Schools such as NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, and East Carolina University have already announced that they have canceled spring break. “We understand that this revised schedule will require many of you to make changes to existing plans, and I can assure you these adjustments were not made lightly,” Gaber said. “However, they were made with the health and well-being of our community as our priority.” ● The Recommended Content Widget will appear here on the published site.
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By Lucas Thomae and Owen Sizemore
With the Fall 2020 semester finally out of the way, and many universities soon to begin classes for Spring 2021, students and staff alike are holding their breath that this semester is less chaotic than the last. Though many institutions were eager to bring a large number of students back on campus to start the academic year in August, this goal proved to be difficult, and in some cases unattainable. In the spirit of college academics, we created a COVID-19 report card for the many schools of North Carolina, highlighting their methods of instruction, housing, and overall ability to minimize coronavirus case numbers and outbreaks.
Appalachian State University App State began their year on Aug. 17, 2020 with a mix of face-to-face, hybrid and online courses. Notably, they chose to keep students on campus for the full duration of the semester, despite an extremely large university population and mounting case numbers and clusters leading into early October. The Good: The university boasted a relatively low positivity rate of roughly 3.1 percent throughout the Fall. This metric is comparable to other, smaller UNC system institutions despite App State being one of the largest schools in the system. The Bad: Overall COVID-19 case numbers saw a dramatic rise from mid-August to the beginning of October. Oct. 3 saw the highest number of active cases of the semester with 225. Further, the university saw cumulative case numbers increase from 99 on Aug. 17 to 1,126 on Nov. 25 when residence halls closed. The Ugly: App State identified an extremely high number of COVID-19 clusters throughout the semester. Of the 24 total clusters, 15 were identified in residence halls, six in Greek Life organizations, and two in sports teams. Final Grade: C- Although their effort to keep students on campus was ambitious, App State’s total number of cases and clusters was too high to warrant a better grade. NC State University NC State opened its doors to students for the Fall notably early, beginning classes on Aug. 10, 2020. However, high case numbers resulted in a mandatory campus move-out at the end of August, forcing the majority of students back home for the remainder of the semester. The Good: NC State’s decision to shift to virtual learning following high COVID-19 spikes severely de-densified their campus, dramatically slowing the increase of new cases among the university community. The Bad: Despite a largely virtual semester, the university still managed to rack up a high number of cumulative COVID-19 cases, with 752 total positive cases and a roughly 2.8 percent positivity rate. Their highest number of daily positive cases occurred on Aug. 22, with 88 total cases. The Ugly: Cases skyrocketed following the Fall 2020 move-in, with total positive cases spiking from a meager 36 to a massive 428 between Aug. 19 and 26. This prompted university leaders to send all on-campus students back home unless granted an exemption. Final Grade: D- NC State’s choice to allow students on campus in August despite high state and national COVID-19 case numbers proved to be a recipe for disaster, saved from failure only by their quick transition to virtual learning. UNC Chapel Hill Chapel Hill was the first UNC System school to bring students back on campus starting Aug. 3. Unfortunately, they were also the first school to bring students back home, asking on-campus residents to cancel their housing contracts after clusters of COVID-19 began to pop up. The Good: Chapel Hill’s quick turn around in shifting to all virtual learning and, ultimately, moving most of the on-campus population off campus saved their case numbers from getting even worse. On Aug. 17 there were 4,765 students living on campus, but by Sep. 18 that number dropped to 1,020. They set the precedent for other schools like NC State and ECU, who were also dealing with rising case numbers, to make similar decisions. The Bad: Over the course of the Fall, UNC reported 12 clusters of COVID-19 linked to residence halls, Greek Life, and student apartments. Of those clusters, eight were in residence halls, three were associated with Greek Life, and one was connected to apartment housing. The Ugly: Chapel Hill prepared only 73 beds in their quarantine dorms, a number so small that it seems ludicrous in retrospect. After the school saw their positivity rate rise to 13.6 percent by Aug. 17, those beds began to fill and capacity in the quarantine dorms very nearly reached zero. Final Grade: D- UNC was brave to be one of the first schools in the nation to bring students back to campus, but sending those students back home just three weeks later was certainly a major disappointment.
UNC Charlotte
Charlotte employed a unique strategy to combat the risk of COVID-19, delaying the move-in of most undergraduate students until the end of September. The university also limited the implementation of in-person classes to first-year courses, engineering, visual arts, and other subjects with a higher need for in-person learning. The Good: UNC Charlotte leadership took careful note of the COVID-19 situation both in the greater Charlotte area and on other college campuses, electing to delay the start of in-person instruction until later in the Fall. The number of students living on UNC Charlotte’s campus as a whole was also significantly reduced. The Bad: Charlotte still recorded its fair share of COVID-19 cases throughout the semester, with a total of 486 positive cases from July 1 to Dec. 13, 2020 and a 2.4 percent positivity rate. This number, however, also includes students and community members who did not live on campus this Fall. The Ugly: Despite a small on-campus population, UNC Charlotte routinely detected COVID-19 through their wastewater detection system and tested residence halls frequently as a result, albeit with relatively low positivity rates. Additionally, on-campus sports teams were a frequent target for case clusters, with a cluster being identified on the baseball team, football team, and basketball team, respectively. Final Grade: B UNC Charlotte was very cautious toward starting off the semester with in-person living and instruction. However, cases and clusters within the Charlotte community were still common. Duke University Duke’s position as a private university allowed it to gain a unique edge against other schools when it came to testing and contact tracing. Their extremely high testing statistics, combined with strict on-campus living and learning policies, allowed for a large number of Freshman and Sophomore students to live safely in Durham. The Good: Duke had by far the most comprehensive testing strategy of any school in North Carolina. They completed over 150,000 tests throughout the Fall, which included entry testing for incoming students, testing for symptomatic students and contact tracing, and routine survey testing for students with no symptoms. The school’s overall positivity rate was less than 0.1%. The Bad: To achieve such a high volume of testing and low positivity rates, Duke only allowed Freshman and Sophomore students to live on campus, with Upperclassmen learning entirely online. Duke specified that there were 8,873 students, both undergraduate and graduate, living in the Durham area in the Fall. The Ugly: Not much to say here - Duke’s ability to keep roughly half of their student population while maintaining an incredibly low COVID-19 test positivity rate was very impressive. Final Grade: A- Though leaving out upperclassmen, Duke was successful in maintaining a very safe in-person learning environment for Freshman and Sophomores for the full duration of their semester. East Carolina University ECU boasted one of the highest numbers of student cases of any institution in the country. After an explosion of positive cases, the school shifted to virtual learning and asked students living on campus to move out by the end of August. The Good: Almost no part of ECU’s response was good, other than the fact that moving students off campus was undoubtedly the right decision. The Bad: ECU has had over 1,700 total positive case numbers since they first started reporting prior to the Fall semester. The week of Aug. 23 to Aug. 29 saw 570 new cases, compared to 276 new cases the previous week, and 31 the week before that. The positive test rate from Aug. 23-29 was a staggering 26.8 percent. The Ugly: ECU reported a whopping total of 26 clusters of COVID-19 over the course of the Fall semester, more than any other school in the state. Fifteen of those 26 clusters were associated with Greek Life organizations. Final Grade: F What else is there to say? ECU’s return was a colossal failure on all accounts. UNC Wilmington Wilmington began its semester early, with on-campus housing opening on Aug. 15 and the first day of classes on Aug. 19. Throughout the Fall, the university struggled to find a balance between keeping students on campus and lowering the risk of new clusters and cases. The Good: Wilmington was relatively quick to respond to rising case numbers on campus, announcing on September 8 that on-campus students must shift to single-occupancy living. They also put forth considerable effort to implement various types of surveillance testing throughout the semester. The Bad: Despite a small initial on-campus population of roughly 3,600 students, cases climbed fast at Wilmington, with a peak of 38 new daily cases on Sept. 3. Smaller spikes were also observed in late September and mid-October. The Ugly: By early September, UNCW was running the risk of reaching its maximum capacity of quarantine and isolation beds. On Sept. 8, 47 percent of the 150 beds were in use, dropping back down to roughly 8 percent use by Sept. 20. Final Grade: C Wilmington’s case numbers peaked early and created an uneasy living situation on campus, but their decision to switch to single-occupancy housing helped prevent further major outbreaks. Other Schools UNC Asheville: The Citizen Times reported that the university had recorded just 25 total positive cases from July 1 to Nov. 11, likely a result of the tiny on-campus population. UNC Greensboro: Though allowing students to return to campus for in-person instruction, the school’s large commuter population likely played a role in keeping cases low, recording 313 total positive student cases since July 1, 2020. NC A&T State University: It is reported that A&T’s cumulative case numbers sit at less than 600 since the start of the academic year. The school reported 6 clusters throughout the Fall. Western Carolina University: WCU saw significant rises in COVID-19 case numbers in late August and late October, with weekly positivity rates of 13.2 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively. Final Word Looking back at their strategies for the Fall semester, many universities are taking a more cautious approach in the Spring. For example, UNC Chapel Hill has delayed the start of in-person instruction by two weeks until February 8, and UNC Charlotte modified its Spring academic calendar to push back move-in until February 18. Single-occupancy housing and limited in-person instruction are two key staples of many schools’ Spring plans. With the national outlook on COVID-19 cases looking grimmer than ever, it will be a difficult feat for the UNC System schools to make the grade this semester. ● The Recommended Content Widget will appear here on the published site.
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On Sept. 23rd, North Carolina State University was one of the first of the UNC System schools to address the anxiety-inducing question that had been looming since outbreaks of COVID-19 forced most students off campus weeks earlier: What happens in the spring? In an email, the school announced to students that they would be welcoming them back into on-campus housing for the spring 2021 semester. The email requested that students fill out a form indicating their housing plans for the next semester by the following week. The announcement left students, who were in the middle of their first round of midterm exams, with a tough decision on a tight deadline. Here, three NC State freshmen give their thoughts as they anticipate their next-semester plans. Robert Kobrin Kobrin has been back at home with his parents since late August, being part of the initial exodus of students off campus. “It seemed like the normal college experience and then it kind of just all went downhill,” he said of his short-lived experience. “I know the university started restricting stuff about a week-and-a-half in, then it spiraled down from there.” Kobrin ultimately decided that he would move back on campus for the spring. “They’re saying that they have a lot of plans in place and that they have restrictions set up, and based on how other colleges have gone I was willing to take the risk.” When asked what NC State would have to do differently to avoid a similar situation to the fall semester, he responded, “Honestly, spend more money. I think you look at the successful colleges… the ones that are doing well are the ones that put money up front to test everyone on a fairly consistent basis to make sure their campus was more locked down in a way, and I think if State does that effort up front, things will be fine.” Kobrin believes that if NC State is to bring students back, they cannot panic if cases begin to rise. “Obviously when you have a big college you’re going to have cases, and I think they also really need to make the commitment to power through,” he said. “Which sounds bad, I guess, up front, but I think it’s safer for the students in the long run.” Cassidy Petrykowski Petrykowski, like Kobrin, has spent the past six weeks at home. She is less sure of her plans for the spring, however. “I’m actually genuinely surprised they are letting us come back to campus next semester, because I don’t really see what’s changed,” she said. On the housing form, Petrykowsi responded that she was interested in on-campus housing for the spring, but she is not committed to anything yet. “They sent out a form telling us that they would have us house individually, there would be no roommates, which I think is a nice gesture but I don’t know if it really tackles the real problem, which I believe is the parties,” she said. Petrykowski, who lived in the university’s honor college housing, said she never participated in, nor saw, large social gatherings taking place while on campus, yet she felt the consequences of other students’ actions just the same. “I think the administration has a duty to the students that are following the rules to deal with those that aren’t,” she said. “But at the same time we’re all adults, we all have a family that could be affected by this, so (the responsibility belongs to) both.” Chris Payne While most students were being sent back to their hometowns, Chris Payne stayed put. He was able to fill out a Special Circumstance Housing Special Request Form that allowed him to stay on campus through the fall semester. However, Payne didn’t think he was going to even have the chance to come back after the semester ended. “I figured they would send everyone home for Christmas and Thanksgiving and then just close down campus completely, so I was kind of surprised when they said they were going to have spring housing,” he said. Payne is skeptical that bringing students back will end any differently than it did the first time. “I kind of think it’ll be the same result,” he said. “Everybody is going to come back and they’ll send everybody back home, because they can’t really control what people are doing so the students are just going to go socialize and spread the virus again.” Payne says drastic measures must be taken to avoid a repeat of the fall semester, starting with a crackdown on the off-campus gatherings. “Close down Greek life, that’s the main thing,” he said. “The first big things, the first clusters, all came from the Greek Village and it's because they’re hosting parties, having events, and everyone’s showing up and spreading the virus all around campus.” Looking Ahead Payne was right in his assessment that the first clusters began with off-campus parties and Greek life events. On August 18th, the first cluster reported to students was at an off-campus residence that was known to have hosted a party less than two weeks prior. The following day, two clusters from sororities at Greek Village were reported. Of the 27 total clusters reported by NC State, ten were connected with Greek life and an additional nine were from off-campus residences. In the Sept. 23 email about spring housing, Chancellor Randy Woodson ensured that the university would take greater care to enforce social distancing rules. “Moving forward, NC State will more aggressively enforce violations of our community standards and state mandates on and off campus, by students and employees, in order to keep our community safe and well.” Additional steps being taken include shifting to single-occupancy dorm rooms, increasing capacity for quarantine and isolation dorms, and enhancing testing and contract-tracing capabilities. UNC-Chapel Hill and East Carolina University, both large UNC System schools with similar COVID-19 case numbers to State, revealed similar plans to bring students back to campus next year. What remains to be seen, however, is how well those schools will be able to contain the virus in their second shot at a return to quasi-normalcy. ● The Recommended Content Widget will appear here on the published site.
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UNC Charlotte Notifies Students of first COVID-19 Cluster, Keeps Cases Low Moving into September9/13/2020 On the morning of September 1, members of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte community received an email from the school's NinterNotice communication tool informing that the first COVID-19 clsuter of the 2020-2021 academic year had been reported. The email, sent at 9:19am, detailed that the "Mecklenburg County Health Department [had] confirmed an off-campus COVID-19 cluster involving eight students residing together in two private residences. These students isolated appropriately and have since recovered". At the time of this story's publishing, there have been no further emails sent via NinerNotice to community members regarding COVID-19 clsuters, on-campus or otherwise. This is likely to due the small student occupancy living on UNC Charlotte's campus following Chancellor Sharon L. Gaber's announcement that the start of in-person classes would be pushed back until October 1 and that move-in for students would be delayed until September 26. At a September 10 Student Government Association meeting, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Kevin Bailey estimated that around 1,000 students are currently residing on UNC Charlotte's campus. UNC Charlotte, like other UNC System institutions, is currently maintaining a digital COVID-19 dashboard to track positive cases in students, staff and faculty, both for those living and working on campus as well as students staying home for the fall. As of 5:00pm on September 10, there were a total of 104 confirmed COVID-19 cases across the entire UNC Charlotte community since July 1. Below is a screenshot of the UNC Charlotte COVID-19 dashboard. Updates are typically made around 5:00pm each weekday. In addition to the upkeep of the COVID-19 dashboard, UNC Charlotte has also implemented a "Niner Health Check Daily Screening" a daily online survey consisting of questions regarding students' health, symptoms, and potential interactions with sick people. Associate Vice Chancellor for Safety and Security John Bogdan remarked at the September 10 SGA meeting that he estimates 50% of the UNC Charlotte community to be completing the Niner Health Check on a daily basis. ● The Recommended Content Widget will appear here on the published site.
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UNCW notified students Tuesday of a plan to move all residential students to single occupancy rooms. The decision was made in cooperation with the New Hanover County Health Department, according to the university’s announcement. Most of the new cases in the county are 18-to-24-year-olds, and that age group makes up 33.5% of total cases, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard. Since July 2020, the university has reported 246 positive COVID-19 cases and five clusters in its residence halls. A cluster is defined by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services as five or more cases that are close in proximity with each other. Of the 3,600 students currently living in residence halls, about 800 are expected to be affected by the plan to de-densify the university’s campus. Over half of the students on campus are already living in single-occupancy rooms. Roommates have the option to decide who will move to a new room. If they do not respond with their decision by September 10th, the university will randomly choose one of them to move out. Students also have the option to move back home and receive a housing refund. Under recommendation by the New Hanover County Health Department, students will not be allowed to move to off-campus housing unless they will be living with their parents or guardians. In the announcement, the university stated: “We are all living in unprecedented times, and we appreciate the flexibility and patience of the Seahawk community as we make necessary changes.” UNCW is the fourth UNC system school to alter their plan for student housing in response to outbreaks of COVID-19, joining the likes of UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State University, and ECU. ● The Recommended Content Widget will appear here on the published site.
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The Email
Monday, August 17th, 3:43 p.m. The email that changed the course of the semester for UNC students arrived in their inboxes. The subject line: [FORMAL NOTICE] Important changes for Fall 2020 Roadmap It was the white flag that had been somewhat expected after students were alerted the previous Friday to the first two clusters of COVID-19 on campus, both in residence halls. A third cluster, associated with a fraternity, was reported Saturday. A fourth was reported Sunday. UNC was one of the first colleges in the nation to welcome students back to campus, serving as a test case of sorts for other schools hoping to hold in-person learning this fall. Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz even made an appearance on CBS’ 60 Minutes in June, showcasing the school’s plan to bring students back to campus, which he referred to as the “Roadmap to Fall 2020.” A crucial part of UNC’s Roadmap was its designation of two residence halls which would serve as a quarantine dorm and an isolation dorm. The isolation dorm was meant to house students who tested positive for the virus. The quarantine dorm was for students who were identified as close contacts of an individual who tested positive. By 3:00 p.m. on Monday, only 4 rooms were available out of the 170 that were prepared in the quarantine dorm, a number that, in hindsight, seems negligently low. In just the first weekend since classes had started, the university’s plan had fallen apart in fantastic fashion. Students had begun to realize that they were studying on borrowed time. Emma Terry-Edmunds is a freshman who was living in one of the first residence halls to report a cluster. She recalls receiving the Alert-Carolina message that notified her of the cases in her building. “We had an emergency suite meeting and took our temperatures and blood oxygen levels, and we all got a ton of texts from friends and family and started talking about moving off campus.” Monday afternoon, Chancellor Guskiewicz convened a special meeting of the Faculty Executive Committee. At its conclusion, the decision was official. All undergraduate instruction would be moved online and the university would be taking steps to “de-densify” its campus. UNC had taken the “off-ramp”, as Guskiewicz had called it. They were the first of the UNC System schools to call it quits after a disastrous reopening. In that infamous email sent out to students following the meeting, Chancellor Guskiewicz and Executive Vice Chancellor Robert Blouin stated, “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.”
Others pointed out that students who could have been exposed to the virus on campus would be endangering their more vulnerable family members by moving back in. UNC junior Annie Ferry tweeted that she was opposed to sending students home on August 15th, calling such a plan, “irresponsible and dangerous to our small communities across the state and country,” instead advocating for an on-campus lockdown.
Reflecting back on her statement, she said, “[UNC] should have expected those clusters before they happened… Sending us home now shifts the blame off of UNC for the rise in cases and back on our communities.” In the Carolina Housing email, all students were strongly recommended to self-quarantine for 14 days upon returning home, based on guidelines by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. When asked whether UNC had considered the possibility of facilitating community spread by sending students home, Campus Health Executive Director Ken Pittman responded, “Students are encouraged to self-quarantine for a period of time on campus if they have a family member living in their home environment who is medically compromised. Community spread should not occur if the student adheres to recommended masking and physical distancing practices once home.” As for Annie, she sent in an application to stay on campus which was ultimately approved. She will do her schoolwork remotely from within the confines of her undergraduate apartment, without fear of unknowingly spreading the virus. A Testing Debacle Over the following days, new clusters of COVID-19 continued to pop up in residence halls and greek houses. By the 20th, UNC announced it was implementing group testing for all residents and employees of three of its residence halls: Granville, Hinton James, and Eringhaus. Based on the occupancy data from 8/17, an estimated 1,966 students living in those dorms were asked to get tested at Campus Health before leaving campus. In order to offset the high volume of phone calls from students trying to schedule appointments, Campus Health suggested that students use a secure online portal to make their testing appointments. However, many students found navigating the portal to be frustrating and confusing. One resident of Eringhaus, who preferred to remain nameless, recounted her experience. “In an already stressful situation, with a full course load due to classes not being canceled, we had to navigate through the process Campus Health provided to get tested,” she said. “It was almost impossible to figure out how to schedule online, and a lot of my friends and I ended up having to test off campus.” When asked what students should do if they are unable to get tested at Campus Health before moving off campus, Executive Director Ken Pittman simply touted his confidence in the ability of the department to meet testing needs. “We have adequate testing capacity at both Campus Health and UNC Health Respiratory Diagnostic Center. Appointments are available every day and have been since this summer.” Regardless of whether Campus Health had adequate testing capacity, the fact remains that students still decided to get their tests off campus. UNC asked that those who tested positive off campus report their results to the university. However, there was no way to ensure that they would comply. One freshman student, who wished to remain nameless, happened to be one of those lost positive cases. After waking up one morning with a fever and slight cough, he called his parents, who brought him home before ever getting a test at Campus Health. “I just assumed it was most likely [COVID-19], and my parents pretty much acted that same day and brought me home to self-quarantine.” Upon returning home, he received a test at an off-campus provider which came back positive. He notified his suite mates of his results, but didn’t report it to Campus Health. Luckily, the student’s symptoms never worsened and they had completely subsided after a few days, but his story presents a troubling — and probably unanswerable — question: Just how many positive cases were never reflected in the university’s reporting of the virus?
Aftermath
Now, nearly two weeks removed from UNC’s decision to send students back home, Chapel Hill feels like a ghost town. The last of the students to move out of dorms left on Sunday. Some were able to find apartments in Chapel Hill to wait out the semester. Many are back at home with their families. Total occupancy of on-campus housing dropped from 60.5% on Aug. 17th to 13.1% on Aug. 28th. Despite the exodus of students, case numbers continued to accumulate up until the last day of move-out. Since the fall semester began, UNC has reported twelve clusters and 848 coronavirus cases, among the highest totals of any college in the nation. Looking forward, the administration has not ruled out a return to campus for the spring 2021 semester, although much of that decision rests on when a vaccine will be made available to the public. Yet even now, the athletics program seems to be charging ahead with its plans for a fall season. Mack Brown said in a recent press conference that he’s “feeling more like [the football team] is going to play now than ever before.” However, if the chaos that has resulted from UNC’s failed on-campus experiment serves as any guide, the only thing we know for certain is that nothing is certain. ● The Recommended Content Widget will appear here on the published site.
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After seeing an explosion of positive COVID-19 cases over the past week, East Carolina University Interim Chancellor Ron Mitchelson announced Sunday that the university would be pivoting all undergraduate instruction to remote learning and is asking students living on campus to move out by the 30th. According to data from ECU’s Public COVID Dashboard, 262 positive COVID-19 cases were reported the week of the 16th through the 22nd. Six new clusters of COVID-19 were reported by the university on the 22nd, five at residence halls and one associated with a sorority. A cluster is defined by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services as five or more cases that are close in proximity with each other. The 262 new cases from last week account for 70.8% of all cases reported since June 7th, bringing the cumulative case number to 370. Of the 370 COVID-19 cases reported since June 7th, 22 (5.9%) are faculty members. The positive test rate from August 16th through the 22nd was 25.9%, up 18.1 percentage points from the previous week, a number that Mitchelson called “unacceptable.” ECU is the third UNC System school to shift to all-remote classes, following in the footsteps of UNC Chapel Hill and NC State University. It is just the second school, alongside Chapel Hill, to ask students to move out of residence halls. Both universities are allowing students with special circumstances to fill out applications to remain in residence halls. Mitchelson, a longtime ECU faculty member, has served as interim chancellor since October 2019. Seated at his desk while wearing a purple face mask, Mitchelson addressed students in a short video released Sunday. “We simply had to try [to come back] because the mission depends on it. But it was also important for us to monitor the numbers and make a difficult but wise choice if it wasn’t working out, and that’s where we found ourselves.” ● The Recommended Content Widget will appear here on the published site.
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1/27/2021
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