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UNC-Chapel Hill leaders come under fire at emergency faculty meeting I NC Policy Watch the campus community of faculty, staff and students,"Chapman said. In the email,for which the subject line was"Dismay,"Chapman went on to say 5 she has personally changed her plans to hold an in-person orientation for doctoral students this week.The class she planned to teach in person this semester will change to remote, she wrote. "I could not possibly do otherwise in the face of such a letter from our local health department,"Chapman wrote. Such a move by the faculty's chair could lead many UNC-Chapel Hill faculty already uncomfortable with teaching in-person this semester to follow suit,citing the health department recommendations. Chapman pointed to already rampant flouting of mask and distancing rules on campus, in student stores and at off campus gatherings. "These look like off-ramps to me,"referring to the term UNC-Chapel Hill has Dr.Mimi Chapman, chair of the UNC-Chapel Hill used to indicate things that would lead the school to detour from its"roadmap to faculty return"and back to the online-only instruction of last semester. Chapman reiterated her disappointment that the administration kept the recommendations from faculty,who have been working for months to make the university's return plan a success despite their reservations. "However,with outside guidance from public health authorities such as is included in this letter,to proceed without completely candid discussion with your faculty,as well as other interested parties, feels like a betrayal,"Chapman wrote. Deb Aikat, a member of the Faculty Executive Committee, said it is at least"a disconnect"in communication between the administration,faculty and the students. "Today the chancellor and the provost have shown almost a willing suspension of disbelief,"Aikat said. "Like, `Oh my God...the community,Orange County Health Department and campus community are not with us?"' That should have been obvious well before now,Aikat said,after months of repeated concerns,protests and petitions over the return plan.All of that seems to have had little impact on the administration's determination to open for in-person instruction in the fall, Aikat said. "It feels like they are struggling to say that everybody is wrong, and they feel like they are doing the right thing,"Aikat said. "`We think we're doing the right thing,'they say,"So this is the way we're going to go."' If even objections from the Orange County Health Department don't make a dent,Aikat said,it seems obvious that the administration does not have the power to change course. 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]