UNC leaders announced initial plans for its upcoming spring semester on Friday, sharing goals to hold in-person instruction and have students live on campus again.

A message to the campus community from Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz revealed UNC’s modes of instruction for the spring 2021 semester, offering students a combination of in-person and remote courses. To achieve this while attempting to limit spread of COVID-19 on the campus, students will have limited housing availabilities and all campus community members will be required to take coronavirus tests.

“The upcoming spring semester will continue to be a different experience for the Carolina community,” wrote Guskiewicz and UNC Provost Bob Blouin on Friday. “But we have learned important lessons from our experiences and those of our peer universities. We have listened very carefully to the opinions and advice offered by our students, faculty and other key constituencies. Through that feedback, we know it will be important to continue to provide flexibility and options to ensure a quality Carolina experience.”

According to the message, UNC leaders have requested the university’s various deans to offer five modes of instruction this upcoming semester. Two will be in-person methods, while the other three will be remote options with either synchronous or asynchronous learning. The university said most classes with 35 enrolled students or more will be assigned a remote-only option, while a limited number of courses will have up to 50 students receiving in-person instruction.

UNC also clarified that priority for in-person courses will be given to classes allowing first-year students to explore disciplines and classes providing seniors opportunities to enroll in capstones and specialized topics.

The university began its fall 2020 semester by holding in-person instruction and welcoming students back onto campus for the first time since March, when the initial outbreak of COVID-19 led UNC to use a remote learning model. While the university completed just more than a week of classes with a limited campus population, several clusters of positive coronavirus cases in student residence halls led to another shift toward remote learning for the remainder of the fall semester.

The university said its decision regarding in-person and remote courses for the spring are directly linked to on-campus residency and testing. This fall, the campus has remained open for approximately 1,500 students who have been living and learning on campus.

University leadership said, based on their experiences during this semester, two important decisions have been made to “best position campus for a successful spring semester.”

First, only single occupancy on-campus housing will be offered to students. Additionally, quarantine and isolation spaces will be expanded. According to Guskiewicz’s and Blouin’s message, the university anticipates housing around 3,500 students on-campus and in Granville Towers – an increase of approximately 2,000 students from the current on-campus residential population.

Carolina Housing will send information to all current residents and those who previously held housing contracts by October 27.

Second, there will be mandatory re-entry and regular COVID-19 evaluation testing for students, faculty and staff for the spring semester. According to the university, this decision regarding COVID testing is based on the success of current student testing that is being conducted at the Carolina Union.

Mandatory COVID-19 testing was previously not required when students initially returned to campus in August. Details regarding the frequency, administration and processing of these required COVID-19 tests are still undecided at this time.

In conclusion, the message to the community said that the university will continue to monitor the course of the virus as spring semester plans are finalized.

“We are prepared to modify our approach in order to support our community based upon the prevailing trends,” the message reads. “We will continue to work closely with our campus partners to discuss and communicate any additional changes or accommodations given the circumstances we may be facing in early to mid-January.”

UNC released alterations to its spring calendar earlier in October, changing the start date to Tuesday, January 19 and its start of final exams to Friday, May 7.

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