After hundreds of students rushed Franklin Street following UNC’s win over Duke, multiple Chapel Hill officials met with UNC leadership on Wednesday to discuss stronger measures for preventing violations of local and state ordinances.
Currently, UNC officials are reviewing more than 300 student conduct complaints from Saturday night, which could ultimately lead to students being kicked out of campus housing or disenrolled from classes.
As the university continues to investigate these referrals, the Town of Chapel Hill and UNC leaders are calling on students to get tested regularly until the threat of transmission has passed.
More than 2,600 students were tested for COVID-19 on Monday — about 500 more students than the university’s seven-day average. Five students tested positive, according to UNC’s coronavirus dashboard. As of Wednesday, February 10, 18 students were quarantined on campus with seven more in isolation.
Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger said the town and university are working to create new community messaging and create alternate, safe celebrations for local college students.
“Everyone’s exhausted – they really are – but it’s just not the time to let up our guard,” Hemminger said. “The vaccine, the light at the end of the tunnel, is there, but we need to be even more vigilant right now as more people are getting vaccinated and as the new strain has come out. We can’t have people doing these kinds of celebrations. No celebration is worth someone else’s health and safety. So, it was just heartbreaking to see this happen.”
According to a press release from the town, the Chapel Hill Police, Fire, and Public Works departments were able to disperse hundreds of people off the street in about 30 minutes without conflict.
Hemminger said the town had extra police force on duty in case of an event like Saturday’s, and to erect barricades if needed to keep people separated from traffic.
“The goal was for it to not happen, but the other goal was if it did happen that we would disperse it quickly,” Hemminger said. “I’m proud of our group for getting it dispersed. Getting a crowd that size dispersed that quickly really is a great undertaking because we don’t use force – we use verbal direction in getting people to move.”
(Photo via Chris Ocana/The Daily Tar Heel)
While Chapel Hill police did arrest one man Saturday night on charges of drunk and disruptive behavior, underage drinking and resisting officers, they did not charge anyone with violating the state’s restrictions on gatherings.
The Chapel Hill Police Department, however, will continue working with UNC to follow up with students who were in violation of community standards. Hemminger said that will include issuing appropriate penalties for violations of state executive orders in addition to any academic penalties handed out by the university.
“The only option we really have is giving out citations,” Hemminger said. “The citations are criminal in nature at this point.”
The town said it will take repeat violations of state executive orders very seriously, with penalties upwards of a Class 2 misdemeanor. Violations can carry up to a $1,000 fine and up to 60 days in jail.
While the town is ready and able to dole out its own punishments, Hemminger said it’s been proven that giving citations doesn’t always lead to different outcomes in the future.
“The goal here is to change behavior,” Hemminger said. “UNC has a more powerful way of doing that with documenting in the student’s files, with warnings, with suspending them from classes and suspending them for the semester. They have the opportunity to place those sanctions and the students have signed a commitment to adhere to community safety standards and if you were at that big event then you violated that commitment.”
UNC required students to sign an acknowledgement of the COVID-19 Community Standards upon their enrollment – which includes wearing a mask, remaining six feet apart and complying with local and state gathering limits.
Lead photo via Chris Ocana/The Daily Tar Heel.
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