In a message to the campus community Friday, UNC leaders said the university hopes to make a full return to in-person instruction in the fall.
“We are encouraged by the increasing pace of the vaccine rollout and decreasing trend in COVID-19 case counts locally,” said UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and Vice Chancellor and Provost Robert Blouin in their letter to the community. “The latest projections are that vaccines will be widely available by late spring. We continue to urge you to get vaccinated as soon as you can – having as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible is our best defense against the virus.”
Based on the guidance of UNC experts, the university said it is planning for a Fall 2021 semester that will be “a more typical residential academic experience at Carolina.”
Fall registration for continuing students will begin on June 1. University leadership said this timing will allow deans, department chairs and instructors the maximum amount of time to plan for the fall.
Carolina Housing will also have an increased number of students on campus this fall. Housing applications are now open and residence halls will be operating at near normal capacity, still with many safety protocols in place, including a maximum of double occupancy in rooms.
The letter to the community also stated that various COVID-19 mitigation measures will continue into the fall semester. Both masks and the Carolina Together Testing Program will “most likely remain in place.”
Guskiewicz and Blouin said these plans to return to full, in-person instruction in the fall are prone to change as COVID-19 metrics continue to be monitored.
“We will continue operating with some level of uncertainty with this virus until it is controlled, so if the virus takes a different path, we will adjust our plans accordingly,” the letter said. “We look forward to working closely with our campus partners as we plan for the Fall 2021 semester, and as always, every decision will be led by the science and projections provided by local and state officials and our faculty and medical experts.”
In January, UNC announced that all undergraduate classes will be held remotely for the first three weeks of the spring semester after troubling trends stemming from the winter holidays.
“With record COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in North Carolina and around the country,” Guskiewicz said in a letter, “we are making adjustments to our spring semester to provide as much flexibility as possible for a safe return to campus. We are making these changes with the health of our campus and the community in mind.”
In the fall of 2020, the Orange County Health Department recommended UNC begin the school year with virtual classes and restrict on-campus housing to at-risk students with housing needs. The university ultimately moved to remote learning August 19 after 130 students and five employees tested positive for the coronavirus the first week of classes.
The university initially transitioned to remote instruction near the start of the pandemic on March 23.
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