UNC Re-opens Amidst COVID: Take Two

The COVID-19 testing line for the Carolina Union in early January, shown here stretching through the pit and beyond Wilson Library. Source: UNC Undergraduate Senator Lamar Richards.

“Once more unto the breach as the saying goes, for once again the Carolina community is back on campus, at least partially. For many first year students, moving back onto campus was the only way to feel as if they got some college experience this year. Other students also chose to return to operate with some semblance of normalcy, albeit six feet apart, as the few in-person classes available are prime opportunities to get away from the screen and return to the feel of traditional learning.”

Once more unto the breach as the saying goes, for once again the Carolina community is back on campus, at least partially. For many first year students, moving back onto campus was the only way to feel as if they got some college experience this year. Other students also chose to return to operate with some semblance of normalcy, albeit six feet apart, as the few in-person classes available are prime opportunities to get away from the screen and return to the feel of traditional learning. While in-person classes have been postponed until February 8th following Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz’s decision to provide for “ ...as much flexibility as possible for a safe return to campus,” many students have already returned to campus. With this return, new testing protocols have been put in place, requiring all students returning to campus to provide a negative test before returning. 

These testing protocols call for all of the 3,500 students residing on campus within a residence hall this semester to get tested at least twice a week. Along with residence hall students, any student with an in-person class, living in a domicile with 10 or more residents, or residing in Granville Towers must receive a test twice a week. Following that category, any undergraduate student residing in Chapel Hill that does not meet any of the aforementioned categories must get tested at least one a week, even if the students are only attending remote this semester. The university has several other groups of various degrees of testing requirements for graduate and professional schools, faculty, and staff, but generally as long as they access campus they must also be tested once a week minimum.

The testing protocol itself was developed in reaction to the events of last semester, when students were required to vacate the dorms after less than 3 weeks on campus. In order to mimic universities that were able to maintain an on-campus presence, UNCCH administration consulted with top university infectious disease experts and adhered to advice published by the CDC. Furthermore, the Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice has coordinated with the UNC healthcare system presence on campus to organize the Carolina COVID-19 Student Service Corps (CSSC). The CSSC is a student volunteer group that aids in the facilitation and coordination of any university policy combatting the COVID-19 presence on campus. It was designed to provide prospective medical students the chance to get some hands on experience in the absence of many labs and in-person internships this year. The CSSC aids in the administration of the swabbing and testing of fellow students among other administrative tasks.

Since the beginning of the new year, there have been 103 positive cases of COVID-19 on the UNCCH campus. However, despite the regularity of testing and the low amount of cases detected thus far, community members have criticized the logistics behind the testing protocols. Students, in accordance with the guidance provided by the University, utilize the webapp Hallpass to streamline the scheduling of their testing appointments, but there was a glitch in the app within the first 10 days of its rollout. This glitch caused long wait lines that lasted upwards of 40 minutes, and students were understandably frustrated. Undergraduate Senator Lamar Richards took to twitter to update his constituents of the extended wait time, stating “the line is going from the Union, past the UL, all the way to the stoplight by Genome,” necessitating a considerable wait time for complying with a required directive. However, other students are just happy to be back, and respect that technical and logistical problems will occur and be dealt with in as timely a fashion as possible. Ultimately, UNC is in a better strategic position to remain open this semester as compared to the previous one, but given the explosion of new cases within North Carolina, the sluggish vaccine rollout, multiple new variants of COVID-19 on the rise, and missteps in testing technology and logistics, only time will tell whether the new testing protocols will be sufficient in providing a safe and adequate in-person experience.