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Its Local Health Department Urged a Virtual Fall.UNC Is Reopening Anyway. across the country/world merge onto the UNC campus," wrote Quintana Stewart, Orange County's health director, in a memo to UNC's chancellor, provost, and vice chancellor, dated July 29. Stewart's major recommendations were for the university to restrict on-campus housing only to those students who need it most, so that everyone can have a single room, and for the university to hold all classes online for the fall. Barring a move to a virtual fall, Stewart recommended the university teach online-only for the first five weeks of the semester to give the department and university additional time to monitor the coronavirus's spread after students' return. The university did not respond to The Chronicle's questions about the letter on Wednesday. Late in the afternoon, the chancellor, Kevin M. Guskiewicz, posted a public statement. "While the OCHD letter was not an order or a mandate for the university to take any specific action, as always, I took their recommendations very seriously," he wrote. "We believe we have made significant progress towards aligning with the OCHD's general recommendations and considerations." The statement then listed actions UNC has taken, including reducing classroom- and dorm-occupancy levels, but it didn't say whether the new occupancy level means students will have single rooms, as Stewart recommended. The health department's memo pointed to clusters of Covid-19 cases among UNC's athletes, who returned for voluntary workouts, and cleaning staff. "We've seen the off-campus parties and gatherings at Greek houses," Stewart wrote. And when health officials tried to do contact tracing, some students wouldn't cooperate. "All of that has added to the concern of bringing basically 30,000 people back into one very small community," Todd McGee, a spokesperson for the health department, said. Orange County has a population of about 146,000. "That's just going to multiply the potential for problems, so that's why she felt the need to go ahead and get it on the record what the recommendations would be." Community opposition also played a role in Stewart's call for closing. "I have received a massive amount of emails from community members, UNC staff, faculty, and students," she wrote, "sharing their concern for fully reopening campus for the fall semester." The UNC system has said it would move as one regarding whether campuses are open for in-person instruction; across the system, campuses are welcoming students back. Generally, individual campuses's chancellors would need to consult with the system president and Board of Governors if they wished to go all virtual, Josh Ellis, a system spokesperson, told The Chronicle last month. However, the chancellors are also "being directed to follow what the county health director is saying," Ellis said at the time. Ellis didn't return a Wednesday request from The Chronicle seeking more detail on the system's guidance to campuses. https://www.chronicle.com/article/its-local-health-department-urged-a-virtual-fall-unc-is-reopening-anyway[8/6/20,10:02:10 AM]