As COVID-19 continues spreading in North Carolina many university students have found themselves back on their college campuses to resume their educations. While the choice to reopen UNC System universities is questionable at best, the least that could be done for students, faculty, and staff at these universities is to provide transparency as to how the pandemic is progressing on their campuses. Some universities have done this; UNC-Chapel Hill is rather infamously alerting their community about active clusters and outbreaks through email and text communication.

North Carolina State University, however, is not doing so.

As of Monday, August 17th, a total of 1,483 tests have been completed at NCSU since March. Of these tests 20 have come back with positive test results, indicating that there have been 20 cases of COVID on this campus since then. Though this number is low it is sure to rise in the few coming weeks as students have returned to campus and resumed activities that could lead to the spread of the virus. This week alone there have been countless unsubstantiated rumors of COVID cases in NCSU residence halls; people have speculated on Twitter and Reddit that entire suites have been quarantined and that there are already students housed in the quarantine residences. These rumors, if true, would not surprise many, but we simply do not know if they are due to the lack of transparent communication on behalf of the university.

As students of NC State, we demand to know where COVID is concentrated on our campus. We have a right to safety and information that can potentially keep ourselves, our peers, and our community safe. We petition NC State to implement a system of communication that would achieve these goals. Sign now to hold the university more accountable for their lack of communication.