UNC students try to make sense of COVID-19 closures
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – First they came to campus, ready to begin classes after the University of North Carolina said the coronavirus would not stop in-person learning.
After one week, the virus took hold. Regular classes were halted, leaving students to face another state of confusion caused by COVID-19.
It’s the latest national problem caused by the virus. College campuses around the U.S. are scrambling to deal with coronavirus clusters linked in some cases to student housing, offcampus parties and packed bars.
Students at UNC, the majority wearing masks when possible, jogged, ate dinner with friends and planned their next steps on Monday. That’s where things got confusing. The announcement earlier in the day had an air of inevitability, students told USA TODAY.
For freshman Eliza Hart, 18, Monday’s news was the latest in coronavirus-related disappointments in 2020. She and the women sharing an on-campus suite will leave UNC’s campus this week.
“I feel like this whole year, that’s kind of the word you can use to describe most of the things that were supposed to happen,” Hart said. “I was a senior earlier this year. With graduations being canceled and proms being canceled, I think ‘disappointment’ is just the word of the year.”
Other students living on campus are unsure about what to do next.
“They tried their best to do the necessary precautions, but, at the end of the day, when you have thousands of students all together, there’s only so much you can do,” said Gigi Cloney, 20, a public policy student. “I think it was already known and they chose to operate knowing this would happen.
“They had quarantines ready because they knew people were going to get sick. That kind of speaks for itself. They literally had quarantine dorms ready and they’ve already filled up in a matter of a week.”
UNC on Monday became the first major university to pivot to online classes after reopening in person. The reversal took one week.
Since the university started in-person courses Aug. 10, it has reported at least four clusters of outbreaks of COVID-19 in student living spaces. Undergraduate courses will go remote Wednesday, and the university said it will reduce the density in its dorms.
Kacie Barrett, 20, who signed a lease to live in an off-campus townhouse with friends, said moving classes online adds another layer of stress.
“You don’t really plan for your room to be a library,” the business administration and economics student said. “You’re supposed to perform the same way you were before. For me, I don’t have a desk. It’s been really hard to find somewhere to study. It’s been a lot – I expected most of my classes to be inperson.”
The anger Cloney expressed was echoed by other students. Some weren’t happy about the timing of UNC’s decisions. Others said they were getting more information from social media than from the school’s administration.
Outbreaks earlier this summer at fraternities in Washington, California and Mississippi provided a glimpse of the challenges school officials face in keeping the virus from spreading on campuses where young people eat, live, study – and party – in close quarters.