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UNC-Chapel Hill leaders come under fire at emergency faculty meeting I NC Policy Watch "The department's recommendations were not having any effect on the university,which just wanted to continue with the plan it had,"one of the employees said. "So now there is a letter the public can read with those concerns spelled out and the chancellor announces,on the same day that it becomes public instead of a private conversation,that they are making changes to the housing and classroom plans. It's curious how that works." The employee pointed to the university own COVID-19 dashboard,which shows 175 infections on campus as of Tuesday,when it was last updated. Of those, 139 are students.While the university is not requiring tests of students moving back to campus,the infection rate among students who have been tested is 10.6%.The statewide infection rate is 8%. As most students have not yet moved onto campus,the health department source said,that elevated rate likely represents just the beginning. "Looking at that data, of course the health department has a problem with this plan,"the employee said. The lack of a public record of the county health department's position was a problem,the other employee said,because it allowed the university to say publicly that it was working in collaboration with the department without actually taking any of their recommendations. "You can't say that you are working with public health experts,public health authorities,on your plan and then overrule those experts and authorities in your actual plan,"the employee said. "If they are going to say that they think they know better than the Orange County Health Department,then they need to say that publicly,"the source said. "They need to say publicly that they've seen the recommendations but they're not going to follow it. People should know that." Q Print This Article O 782 O 30 000 40 Ft Joe Killian ❑ Joe Killian,Investigative Reporter,joined N.C.Policy Watch in August of 2016.His work takes a closer i look at government,politics and policy in North Carolina and their impact on the lives of everyday people. Before joining Policy Watch,Joe spent a decade at the News&Record in Greensboro,reporting on everything from cops and courts to higher education.He covered the city councils of High Point and Greensboro and the Guilford County Board of Commissioners before becoming the paper's full-time government and politics reporter.His work has also appeared in the Winston-Salem Journal, Go Triad,the Bristol Press in Bristol, Conn.,and the Cape Cod Times in Hyannis,Mass. joe@ncpolicywatch.com 919-863-2402 Follow . 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]