I consider myself an expert in UNC controversies. I’m almost done with a book about the academic fraud scandal. Silent Sam, the physics prof who got used as a drug mule. You name a UNC scandal, I know it.
This failed reopening absolutely takes the cake. On optics. On real world consequences. On sheer head-shaking dumbfoundedness.
Every constituency except for the people in charge told UNC it was a bad idea. Staff. Faculty. Students. Community. In the words of a very smart student newspaper, “We all saw this coming.”
But the leaders had to give it a shot. The system mandated it. So I guess they needed to go out and get people infected to show it wasn’t safe? In a pandemic!
Forget about students. Community cases will probably surge even after the campus goes online. Imagine being a Northside resident. It wasn’t enough for the university to gentrify your neighborhood, now they also have to expose you to a deadly virus?
What separates this UNC controversy from the rest is that it’s replicable at every other big campus in America.
Every college that encourages mass migration and congregation needs to prepare for what we’ve seen and are seeing at UNC. Sickness. Anxiety, confusion, disillusionment, feelings of betrayal. And failure.
There’s nothing particularly special about Chapel Hill. This will happen to varying degrees everywhere. It’s only a matter of time.
One common element between this and Silent Sam: the Republican controlled BOG mandating policy for Chapel Hill. I suspect UNC would not have opted for in-person had it been given free rein.
Anyone who follows UNC system governance knows that it’s become deeply dysfunctional. How much longer can it go on like this?
(For more on the book: writingabook.substack.com/welcome)
