CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) – Following an increase of 135 COVID-19 cases on campus in just the first week, in-person undergraduate classes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will move online.
Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said the change goes into effect Wednesday.
“Since launching the Roadmap for Fall 2020, we have emphasized that if we were faced with the need to change plans – take an off-ramp – we would not hesitate to do so, but we have not taken this decision lightly,” Guskiewicz said.
Graduate, professional and health affairs courses will continue to be taught as they are, or as directed by the schools.
Guskiewicz said the school expects the majority of undergraduates to change their residential plans for the remainder of the semester.
“Residents who have hardships (such as lack of access to reliable internet access), international students or student athletes will have the option to remain,” the chancellor said.
The University announced four clusters of the virus among students within three days.
Guskiewicz‘s announcement comes just hours after Barbara Rimer, dean of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, called for classes to be moved online.