As the university prepares to transition to full, in-person operations, at an employee forum meeting earlier this week, UNC leadership outlined the latest summer and fall semester plans.
Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said the Carolina Together Testing Program conducted close to 200,000 COVID-19 tests throughout the spring semester. In addition to increased testing, UNC opened a vaccination clinic to students.
“Our vaccination clinic [has] gone [well],” Guskiewicz said. “We stood up that clinic about five or six weeks ago. We’ve now vaccinated close to 3,500 students. We know just by some of the surveying we’ve been doing that there are many many more students that are vaccinated. They got vaccinated at other locations around the state.”
The UNC Campus Vaccination clinic is now open to faculty and staff. Household members of students, faculty, and staff can also receive a COVID-19 vaccine at the campus clinic.
The expansion of the vaccination clinic matches an expansion of vaccinations across the state.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday more than 50% of adults over the age of 18 have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and more than 43% are fully vaccinated.
Provost Bob Blouin said the UNC-System is not yet requiring students and faculty to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, but campus leadership is recommending everyone receive one.
“We are hoping for an 80%-plus compliance rate for our students faculty and staff,” Blouin said. “We are going to continue the importance of that vaccination, but we are also going to maintain a very vigorous surveillance testing program. We think that’s going to be absolutely critical in order to maintain a safe environment.”
Guskiewicz said, although the campus is a highly vaccinated community, there is still a long way to go in reaching herd immunity. As faculty and students return to campus, he said the university is looking at whether aspects of remote learning could carry over to the fall.
“We need to get back so we can see what that new normal looks like,” Guskiewicz said. “What are the needs of our students, faculty and staff in an as close to normal on-campus, working environment? Productivity, work satisfaction, the impact on teams and service delivery – all of that is going to be important as we’re getting back and better understanding what this new normal is going to look like.”
Blouin echoed the chancellor’s comments on the uncertainty of the fall operations.
“Not everything is done with respect to the fall plan,” Blouin said. “We still have questions we are waiting to base our judgements on based on new science or new information from the CDC, the FDA and others as well as our campus health experts with regards to such things as physical distancing.”
Blouin said the summer operations will look similar to last year. The university is running some camp activities and roughly 15% of summer classes will be held in-person. The UNC workforce will return in full July 19, with students’ first day of classes planned for August 18.
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