As classes are expected to resume this Wednesday, August 18, UNC faculty are calling for four to six weeks of remote learning amid rising coronavirus spread.

In a petition to UNC leadership, faculty members say a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, alongside a more contagious delta variant, should be determinants in the move to remote learning and online instruction.

“The time to act is now,” the petition reads. “We, UNC-CH instructors, call upon Chancellor Guskiewicz and Provost Blouin to delay in-person classes until the metrics improve. This is the only moral and compassionate path. We require bold and courageous leadership. The risks are too high.

The petition asks that university staff who do have to be on campus are provided with N95 masks with time off to get tested or vaccinated. It also calls for these staff members to receive “hazard pay.”

As of Monday, more than 400 faculty members have signed the petition.

The petition states, “The current plan for UNC—which includes no “off-ramp” for remote learning, unlike last fall, and no vaccine mandate—is for regular classrooms with no physical distancing, near-full dorms, football games with no masks, and full to capacity dining halls. This is a formula for disaster.”

While university leadership does not have the power to mandate a vaccine or proof of vaccination for the campus community, students who are not vaccinated for COVID-19 are required to continue weekly COVID-19 tests within the Carolina Together testing program. Additionally, unvaccinated faculty and staff will also be required to test weekly in the program beginning September 15.

Students who do not submit proof of vaccination for COVID-19 will also be required to complete a COVID-19 test at a Carolina Together testing site within 24 hours of arrival to campus – which was not a requirement for move-in last fall.

“Leading into this past week, we have completed over 190,000 tests in our testing program which is no small feat,” said Dr. Amir Barzin, leader of UNC’s Carolina Together Testing Program. “As you kind of grow the amount of people that are on campus, we want to make sure we are doing everything we can to keep our local community safe.”

As in-person instruction resumes, more than 9,000 students are set to live on-campus during the fall semester. The university will continue to provide two residence halls for students who need to quarantine or isolate.

Regardless of vaccination status, all members of the UNC community will be required to wear masks indoors. Exceptions to the masking requirement include when in residence hall rooms or apartments, in private offices, and while eating or drinking.

“As we learned from the past two semesters, online teaching, although not always optimal, can work well. Clearly, we can move to remote classes for the next 4-6 weeks until the more transmissible Delta variant surge is brought under control,” the petition reads. 

Last fall, students participated in in-person instruction for only five days before the university announced the move to virtual instruction.

Read more about changes to UNC’s COVID-19 protocols here.

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