The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill moved all undergraduate classes remote Monday after a spike in cases of coronavirus among students during the first week of on-campus schooling was called out in a blunt, uncensored editorial in the school’s paper, the Daily Tar Heel.
“UNC Has a Clusterf—- on its hands,” read the paper’s print edition headline. “Editorial: We all saw this coming,” and
“clusterf— (n) : a complex and utterly disordered and mismanaged situation,” read the headline and deck on the paper’s website. Though in both cases the word “clusterf—” was left uncensored. The word also served as a pun on the fact that the school has seen multiple COVID-19 clusters for over the last week, defined as at least 5 cases in proximity to one another.
The editorial was widely praised online for its directness in response to the growing number of COVID cases at the school.
“In just the past week (Aug. 10-16), we have seen COVID-19 positivity rate rise from 2.8% to 13.6% at Campus Health. As of this morning, we have tested 954 students and have 177 in isolation and 349 in quarantine, both on and off campus. So far, we have been fortunate that most students who have tested positive have demonstrated mild symptoms,” said a Monday message from the school’s chancellor, Kevin M. Guskiewicz.
He announced remote learning will become effective Wednesday for undergraduate students while students in graduate, professional and health affairs schools will continue as they are, directed by individual schools.
Residence halls had been at only 60% for the semester, Guskiewics said, while only 30% of class seats were filled.
The Daily Tar Heel student paper is independent and not funded by the school. See screen shots of the print edition and web edition below (note: profanity):
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