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UNC-Chapel Hill leaders come under fire at emergency faculty meeting I NC Policy Watch In the memo, Stewart expressed concern over signs returning students have already contributed to spikes and clusters of infections. She recommended an all-online fall semester or,at a minimum,holding the first five weeks of the semester online-only. She also recommended the school restrict on-campus housing to those who would otherwise have nowhere to live,in order to slow community spread of the disease. Confronted with the letter and questions about why his office did not disclose the health department's concerns,Guskiewicz told an emergency Faculty Executive Committee meeting the school is taking several lesser steps to address them.These will include reducing classroom capacity to 30 percent and dorm capacity to 64 percent—an announcement that students,staff and faculty said they learned of for the first time at Wednesday's meeting. Guskiewicz emphasized the school has been meeting with the Orange County Health Department throughout the summer and met with it again Friday after Stewart's letter.But these were recommendations,Guskiewicz said—not an order.The UNC System has said schools would have to follow an order by the health department,but not recommendations. The chancellor described the Orange County Health Department's recommendations as"another piece of information we have received." But after consulting with UNC health experts and the UNC System—which will make the final decision on closures— the university decided not to follow the health department recommendations. "We believe,based on the advice of our public health and infectious disease experts who weighed in on this last week,that we still have a roadmap that can bring people back safely in this environment who have chosen to do so,"Guskiewicz said. a. a f Guskiewicz said he spoke to UNC System President Peter Hans and former Interim UNC President Bill Roper last week to discuss the health department recommendations. "We were advised to stay the course,"Guskiewicz said. AANLJ Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz Orange County Health Department officials disagree with the decision,he said,and have made that clear. "They still had concerns,no question,"Guskeiwicz said,"But who doesn't have concerns?" Faculty `dismay' Guskiewicz's statements were not well received by faculty. The emergency faculty meeting came together quickly Wednesday after a letter was sent to the chancellor by Dr. Mimi Chapman, chair of the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty, regarding the health department recommendations. "It feels like a serious breach of trust to have kept such recommendations from https://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2020/08/06/unc-chapel-hill-leaders-come-under-fire-at-emergency-faculty-meeting/[8/7/20, 10:18:52 AM]