Reopening 2.0: Examining How UNC's Reopening Plans Have Changed for Spring 2021

UNC Students wait in line in the pit - at a safe social distance, on Fall FDOC (August 10th, 2020). In-person arrangements were shut for the semester just six days later. Source.

Many in the Carolina community who have checked the Registrar’s Calendar recently will have noticed a stark change: UNC-Chapel Hill’s spring semester is starting much, much later than normal. The administration moved the semester’s scheduled start date from Jan. 6 back to Jan. 19, in hopes that a longer winter break would provide more time to plan for another semester amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Moving the semester’s starting date is just one of many changes designed to prevent a repeat of the fall’s disastrous reopening. Within a week of welcoming students back to campus in August, UNC’s administration reversed the decision to reopen, sending thousands of students back home for a full semester of virtual learning. 

In preparation for the fall, UNC instituted a long list of COVID-19 centered community standards and altered learning environments to allow for the CDC’s recommended 6 feet of distancing in classrooms. Despite these measures, multiple clusters of coronavirus cases emerged less than a week after the August 10 start of classes. 

Despite the fact that COVID-19 hospitalizations are the highest they have ever been in N.C., the university is continuing plans to reopen again in the spring, with an increased on-campus population and in-person classes offered amidst several other virtual instruction methods. 

The university administration is hopeful that the multiple changes made to the university’s calendar, housing and instructional methods will prevent a repeat of August’s closing. 

The biggest change to UNC’s reopening plans is a comprehensive COVID-19 testing plan. In the fall, UNC did not require re-entry testing for students and faculty coming back to campus. Re-entry testing is designed to prevent students infected with the coronavirus from returning to campuses and unknowingly spreading the virus upon arrival. Several colleges and universities across the U.S. opted for some form of re-entry testing in the fall, but UNC wasn’t one of them. At the time of UNC’s reopening, the CDC did not formally recommend re-entry tests for students returning to university campuses. 

The university is reversing that decision for the spring. Students returning for in-person instruction will be required to get a COVID-19 test at home, before the start of the semester. Following re-entry testing, all students will be expected to get tested as often as twice a week. 

In addition to the new testing plan, UNC is also lowering its overall on-campus housing occupancy. All dorm rooms will be single-occupancy for the spring, another new measure designed to limit the spread of the virus. This occupancy limit will mean that around 3,500 students will be permitted to live on campus. The occupancy limit will still nearly triple the current campus population, which has been about 1,000 students since the majority moved off-campus in August. 

The last major change to UNC’s spring semester? No spring break. In an effort to prevent students from travelling, UNC has opted against its traditional week-long break in March. Instead, the university has altered its academic calendar to include five ‘wellness days’ spread throughout the semester. The revised time off is intended to give students a break from their classwork without endangering the community. 

Whether or not all of these new measures will work as intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus and give students a more normalized campus experience remains to be seen.