UNC frat hung plastic sheets to hide party, says chief. Are citations the right response?
UNC students have blacked out windows and run from the police to avoid being caught for violating COVID-19 rules, Chapel Hill’s police chief told town officials this week.
Should they be criminally cited?
Elected leaders’ responses to Police Chief Chris Blue’s email show that recent student parties and UNC’s response to off-campus behavior so far have bolstered support for strict enforcement of state limits on gatherings: 10 people indoors, 25 people outdoors.
But at least one Town Council member does not think criminal citations are necessarily the answer.
The town’s policy has been to warn and educate violators. Blue has said citations will only be issued for repeat or egregious violations.
This week, Chapel Hill cited four UNC students for violating the state’s limit on indoor gatherings. The Class 2 misdemeanors can result in a fine of up to $1,000 or up to 60 days in jail for repeated violations.
Police were called to investigate a loud party on Aug. 20, Blue told the town manager in an email. As the officers approached, they could see “an excessive number” of people inside without masks and not keeping their distance from each other, he said.
When people at the party saw the officers, many left through the back door, Blue said. Two residents who admitted hosting the party were cited for violating the state’s limit on indoor gatherings, he said.
The other violations, also Aug. 20, were issued after police responded to a loud party at Phi Delta Theta fraternity on South Columbia Street.
The party hosts had covered the windows and doors with black plastic, making it hard to contact anyone inside about the music, which exceeded the town’s noise limits, Blue said. The officers looked through gaps in the plastic and saw about 50 people inside, he said.
When two residents came outside to talk with the officers, they “eventually” admitted knowing the state rules, Blue said.
Both incidents were “glaring violations of the crowd limitations,” the chief said. The violations are being shared with UNC officials through a town-gown task force and, starting this week, with UNC Student Affairs, which Blue said will notify students and parents about violations and possibly take other actions.
Free COVID-19 testing Friday
College-age residents — those age 18-24 — now account for 44% of Orange County’s 2,143 positive COVID cases the state reported Thursday. That percentage has doubled since Aug. 12 — a week after students started returning to Chapel Hill.
Only about 30% of the 903 UNC students who have tested positive for coronavirus since February live on campus, Town Council member Hongbin Gu noted in an email. UNC has reported 12 clusters — five or more cases in one location — in dormitories, at the UNC Foundation-owned Granville Towers apartment complex, and at three fraternities and sororities.
The 12th cluster was announced Thursday evening in Cobb residence hall.
However, UNC’s dashboard has shown an almost daily decline in the number of new, COVID positive cases since UNC made all classes remote on Aug. 19 and students started leaving campus.
In addition to testing at UNC Campus Health and at UNC Hospitals, Orange County will hold a free testing event from 10 a.m to 2 p.m. Friday at the R7 Parking Lot, 725 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Chapel Hill.
The nearly 30,000 students who attend UNC comprise a significant portion of Chapel Hill and Carrboro’s roughly 88,000 residents.
There are many residents who “are gravely concerned and will be grateful for these (enforcement) efforts,” Gu said in an email. She advocated publicizing the citations to encourage others to do the right thing.
Should students be prosecuted?
Council member Karen Stegman said in an email that she does not support criminal citations or publicizing citations out of concern about “the increasing tension between students and non-students.”
However, she said she does not oppose consequences for students who break the rules.
“This is the University’s doing and they have the direct authority to contact parents, suspend students, etc. which seems appropriate,” Stegman said. “I don’t think it is a good use of criminal justice system resources nor is it appropriate for students to be criminally charged with all the repercussions that involves.”
Students clearly are aware they are violating the state rules, because they are “taping black plastic to the windows (and) fleeing out the back door when police arrive,” Council member Amy Ryan said in an email.
She joined Gu in advocating for public disclosure of citations.
“Being able to also announce significant and specific sanctions from the university would be ideal (and a better resolution than citations and running students through the court system), but I wish I were more confident that UNC will step up here,” Ryan said. “If those actions aren’t enough to stop illegal gatherings, I think continued citation is our only option.”
Council member Michael Parker noted that other universities around the country are taking more responsibility for student behavior, such as suspending students, than UNC has taken so far.
“Of course, UNC has to aggressively publicize what their intent is and then let students know when action has been taken. If UNC is unwilling to take this approach, then I fear we are left with few useful options,” Parker said.
The council sent a letter to UNC earlier this month urging it to take more responsibility for off-campus student behavior. UNC officials have said their ability to control students off campus is severely limited.
Mayor Pam Hemminger said Tuesday in an email that she would meet this week with UNC’s vice chancellors.
“We are all taking this seriously and working through how to get the students to change behavior and comply with community safety standards,” she said. “Accountability is the main topic.”
UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and Bob Blouin, UNC’s executive vice chancellor and provost, sent a letter Wednesday to Chapel Hill town officials in which they acknowledged the concerns and said the university has dealt with several dozen cases related to on- and off-campus student conduct.
The letter, released Thursday to the media, also outlined steps that UNC has taken to address student behaviors and the spread of COVID-19, including increased testing for UNC students, closer collaboration with town police and other officials, and several possible penalties for students and student organizations that violate local and state rules.
Those penalties could include written warnings, restricted access to campus facilities and revoking a student’s enrollment in the university, the letter stated. Organizations found to be in violation also could lose access to campus facilities, as well as university funding, or lose their campus standing and recognition, it said.
The university also sent a second, “more strongly worded” letter to the Greek community on Monday.
“We have learned a lot over the past month and want to assure you that we are taking these matters seriously and will continue to listen to your suggestions about how we can strengthen our community,” Guskiewicz and Blouin told the council in Wednesday’s letter. “We always want the town to view the University as an asset, just as the University views the town.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 2:50 PM with the headline "UNC frat hung plastic sheets to hide party, says chief. Are citations the right response?."
