An Open Letter to UNCC

I write this letter alone in my room, the space where I have so carefully confined myself to for the past five months. The same place I was told would be the safest place to do my job. The same place where I completed ten credit hours successfully during the summer semester. The same place I was sent in March when there were an estimated 300 COVID-19 cases in North Carolina, when Governor Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency, closing our university. 

I sit here today in the same state, only now I am surrounded by 1,972 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Yet, I am expected to return to campus in 18 days. I, along with the majority of the country, have lived in fear for almost half of a year. I have awakened every single day since March wondering which of my friends will be the next to contract the virus, wondering which of my high-risk parents would be more likely to survive this sickness, wondering if that tightness in my chest is particles in my lungs which will render me sick and permanently crippled or if it is just anxiety. I wake up each day wondering which grocery store trip will be the one that kills me. I am so used to this constant state of worry now that these fears plaguing my head are my new normal. However, I have never felt this trepidation as strongly as I do today. 

On Monday, August 10th, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hosted its first day of class for the fall 2020 semester. Within one week, UNC’s COVID-19 case count rose by 135 cases, according to the school’s paper, The Daily Tarheel. This rise in positivity was not-so-shockingly 5 times the positivity rate from the prior week. Let’s take a moment to discuss these numbers: The 135 cases recorded only account for the positive test results of students. This number does not include those who were not tested, those who potentially received false negatives, or those who came into contact with each of these 135 individuals and now have to isolate or quarantine. After this whopping spike in cases, UNC’s students pushed the university to move to an all-online semester through petitions and articles. 

On Monday, August 10th, North Carolina State University hosted its first day of classes for the fall semester. Since this day, over 500 students have been ordered to isolate or quarantine. Today, on August 20th, NC State announced it would also be moving to an all-online semester beginning August 24th. Are we seeing the pattern?

On Monday, September 7th, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte will be hosting its first day of classes. If UNCC officials act today to move the fall semester online, we could break this pattern. We have the power now to avoid the countless impending cases and deaths of members of our own institution. We have the time now to fully prepare each course to fit an online setting; a luxury NC State and UNC Chapel Hill do not have. 

I am writing this letter as a cry for help; to ask my university to call off in-person classes for the sake of my peers, my professors, the entirety of the staff, and for the sake of our city as a whole. I have stayed home, I have distanced myself from both my family and my friends for their protection and mine, and I have worn a mask each time I have had to venture into public. I have done my part. Now, it is time to do yours.