UNC Getting Input on Spring Plans

From Staff Reports

UNC is convening a new advisory committee — comprised of students, faculty, staff and community members — to examine how to tackle the spring semester during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Campus and Community Advisory Committee, wrote Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz in a message to the university community, will help determine “how we can provide the best Carolina experience for as many students as possible, with safety and well-being as a priority.”

The group, Guskiewicz added, “will reflect on the past six months and the Fall 2020 Roadmap, provide input related to specific considerations as identified by myself and my leadership team and seek input from broader constituencies on campus and in our neighboring communities.”

Input and feedback from the committee will be incorporated into the development of the university’s plans for the spring semester, but “the final decisions [will be] delegated to our campus and responsibility for those decisions rests with me, in consultation with my leadership team, our Board of Trustees and the UNC System,” Guskiewicz wrote.

UNC’s initial plans for the fall semester called for a combination of in-person and remote classes. But only a week after the first day of classes last month, amid a cluster of COVID-19 outbreaks in dorms and Greek houses, the university ended the experiment and reverted to all remote classes and to “de-densifying” residence halls for the rest of the fall.

“I know that the past several months have not been easy, and I continue to be impressed with the ways in which our community has come together to facilitate distance learning, further critical research activities and provide expertise and services to the people of North Carolina and beyond,” the chancellor said.

“While many of us continue to believe that the best Carolina experience is one that happens in person, it remains to be seen whether public health conditions will enable us to resume full on-campus operations in the spring.”

• Members of the advisory committee from the community include Jamil Kadoura, owner, Mediterranean Deli, Bakery and Catering
• Mary Jane Nirdlinger, assistant town manager, Town of Chapel Hill
• Aaron Nelson, president and chief executive officer, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce.

The committee will be co-chaired by Mimi Chapman, the faculty chair; Shayna Hill, the head of the Employee Forum; and Student Body President Reeves Moseley.