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Emails show faculty, health officials expressed concern over UNC-Chapel Hill's COVID-19 plan before August reopening - ABC11 Raleigh-Durham <br />https://abc11.com/unc-covid-nc-coronavirus/7029408/[10/19/20, 3:46:34 PM] <br />inquiring about cancellations. <br />By Monday, August 17, 349 students were in campus <br />quarantine and another 177 in isolation. <br />By 1 p.m., campus officials were reviewing a draft of an <br />email that would eventually alert the campus hours <br />later that in-person classes would be canceled. <br />The emails ABC11 obtained do not show the factors <br />weighed or the conversations between officials leading <br />up to this decision. <br />Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger sent an email to <br />Blouin and Guskiewicz at 2 p.m. requesting the <br />university take action against the increase in cases and <br />"toll that the re-opening of the UNC campus" had on <br />the community. <br />Hemminger called the situation an "avoidable" <br />outcome and a "direct result of the decisions made by <br />university administrators." <br />"The vacuum left by the university's decision to take <br />minimal responsibility for students when they are off- <br />campus has meant that the need for monitoring and <br />reporting has fallen to peers and neighbors, which is <br />neither appropriate nor fair," the mayor wrote. <br />Hemminger stressed the need to work together and <br />request the university provide more updates to its <br />COVID-19 dashboard and pursue the off-ramp to <br />virtual learning. <br />Hours later, the news broke of the university canceling <br />in-person classes.