The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Monday announced the switch to virtual courses for nearly 20,000 of its students after dozens of positive cases the week of the start of the school year, resigning themselves to a choice already made by hundreds of other universities. The decision echoes the many American cities that have opted for a hybrid return (a few days a week in class) for their elementary and secondary schools, or 100% virtual in the case of large cities including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington.
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177 UNC Chapel Hill students who tested positive are currently in solitary confinement, and the positivity rate for campus tests has fallen from 2.8% to 13.6% last week compared to the previous week, according to an announcement from the public university, one of the most highly rated in the country. 349 students have been placed in quarantine. Outbreaks have broken out in several dorms and in a fraternity house, according to the student newspaper Daily Tar Heel.
Only 60% of university accommodation was occupied for this start of the academic year, and 30% of students physically present in class, but the university management announced that from Wednesday, all undergraduate students (undergraduate, the first four years) would move on to distance learning. According to the UNC site, this concerns more than 19,000 students. On the other hand, more advanced students, in master's, doctorate and professional programs, that is to say more than 10,000 people, will be able to continue to come in person.
“We understand the concern and anger these changes will cause in many students and parents,” wrote UNC Chapel Hill President Kevin Guskiewicz and Rector Robert Blouin. "But we believe that the current data presents an untenable situation." Chapel Hill had worked for months to reconcile pandemic and face-to-face return. She had distributed kits containing masks, hydroalcoholic gel, thermometer and contactless key. Classes were spaced 30 minutes apart. The mask was compulsory. The configuration of the classes had been adapted to allow distance. Gatherings of more than 10 people indoors were prohibited.
But it is life outside the campus that seems to have been beyond the reach of the university administrators: at the beginning of August they had written to the members of the fraternity and sorority clubs to reproach them for their contempt of the instructions and the organization of parties, going so far as to threaten them with expulsion from the university. Out of nearly 3,000 universities and other higher education institutions in the United States, 30% have chosen to teach primarily or completely online, 15% a hybrid model, and 23% primarily or completely in person, the rest not having not yet announced the format, according to statistics compiled by the College Crisis Initiative.