After students rush Franklin St., Chapel Hill and UNC seek to better enforce COVID rules
Chapel Hill and UNC officials met Wednesday to talk about student compliance, violations and potential solutions — just days after about 1,000 students rushed Franklin Street following a win over Duke men’s basketball Saturday night. Hundreds of students could be disenrolled for their participation in the celebration.
What happened was “not what they wanted to have happen,” Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger said Wednesday afternoon.
She said they are looking ahead to the UNC home game against Duke on March 6, as well as to the ACC Tournament. They also are drafting an agreement for enforcing community standards off campus, including at most fraternity and sorority houses.
“We’re doing a better job giving each other a head’s up when things are starting to brew,” Hemminger said. “We’re starting to talk more ahead of time so we can prepare better.”
In an email to town officials Monday, Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue said town and UNC police officers had been on standby Saturday for post-game activity. Their plan focused on providing the resources necessary for street closures and traffic diversions if the crowd grew.
Blue said given the early tipoff of the game and local COVID-19 restrictions, they were hopeful not to see much student activity. But police presence didn’t deter students from rushing to the intersection from local bars and restaurants, blatantly disregarding state, town and university COVID rules.
UNC investigating complaints
UNC officials are reviewing more than 300 student conduct complaints from Saturday night, which could lead to students being kicked out of campus housing or disenrolled from classes.
Hemminger noted that most students get a warning for a first offense, unless it is especially egregious. There is no timeline for UNC to complete its investigation, she said.
UNC students are complying with the university’s mandatory testing, according to the mayor. Students who live in the Chapel Hill or Carrboro area must get tested once a week, even if attending remote classes, and twice a week if they live on campus or have in-person classes.
The university also has asked students who swarmed Franklin Street on Saturday to isolate for six days and then get tested.
About 2,500 students were tested for COVID-19 on campus Monday — about 500 more students than the 7-day average. Five students tested positive, according to UNC’s coronavirus dashboard.
The university reports about 300 COVID-19 cases among students testing on campus since move-in day. There have been four clusters reported in dorms.
Danny Bowen, a UNC senior and student government chief of staff, said Saturday night’s Franklin Street gathering damages the university’s relationship with the town. At their regularly scheduled meeting Monday, student leaders discussed how to prevent future mass gatherings.
“I think there was a lot of anger among students, like why wouldn’t administrators see this coming, why wouldn’t we be more prepared for this,” Bowen said. “But at the same time, would you put up more physical barriers, increase the messaging? … It’s hard to say what exactly could have prevented the gathering.”
Bowen said student leaders are concerned about another potential spreader event after the Carolina-Duke game in March, which is then followed by a four-day weekend where students are more likely to travel and party.
“An option we’re looking into is putting out messaging that’s not so much focused on the discipline aspect, but more of us as students to encourage other students to stay safe,” Bowen said.
Still, student leaders want the university to be transparent about the potential consequences students could face for any violations and to make sure that investigations are being followed up on.
Enforcing COVID rules for UNC students
UNC students can face disciplinary action if they are found responsible for violating university policies like not wearing face masks or attending large social gatherings. The university investigates each complaint and has been tracking potential COVID-19 community standards violations since the fall semester.
When violations are reported or found, a town-gown group that includes police, fire and code enforcement officers and UNC student services officials visit off-campus houses together to talk with residents. Blue noted that his officers also are doing more joint patrols with UNC police, including weekend “party patrols.”
Although Chapel Hill police arrested one man Saturday night on charges of drunk and disruptive behavior, underage drinking and resisting officers, they did not charge anyone with violating the state’s restrictions on gatherings.
“We try very hard to never make an arrest in those settings for a lot of reasons,” Blue said. “Doing so can actually provoke a crowd.”
UNC reported receiving about 450 reports between August and October, then 179 reports between Nov. 1 and Jan. 31.
The university’s latest community standards report show that students in 88 cases received written warnings or faced other low-level disciplinary action, nine students were removed from campus housing and 60 cases remain pending. Nearly two dozen cases were cleared when officials could not find a violation or identify the student responsible, the report said.
UNC-CH Vice Chancellor for Communications Joel Curran said in a statement that university leaders are committed to constantly adjusting their operations to ensure their efforts are as effective as possible.
Curran said the vast majority of UNC students are following the 3 Ws and doing the right thing to keep themselves and the community safe. And the university is ensuring there are consequences for those who do not, he said.
Student activity affecting the community
“When negative student activity occurs, like what happened Saturday night, that poses a direct threat to our community members,” said Dylan Heneghan, a UNC junior and student government leader.
Heneghan said the frustration started in August when students were partying on front porches and setting up Slip ‘N Slides right in front of neighbors who’ve been living in their houses for generations. It’s clear that students defying COVID-19 guidelines off campus is going to be an issue throughout the spring semester, he said.
“It isn’t fair for the town and community to have to fear interaction with their neighbors … or fear letting their kids play because students want to cling onto what they’re calling ‘the college experience,’” Heneghan said.
He said student leaders are meeting with town and university officials to try to get a better idea of how to get students to hold up their end of the relationship. There are challenges to holding off-campus students accountable, and those students might think the rules don’t apply to them, he said.
“If the accountability doesn’t happen there, that’s a slap in the face to the community and the general concern for their lives and the lives of their families,” Heneghan said.
Most large parties have been at Greek houses, Hemminger said. But the town also has gotten numerous complaints about parties at student apartment complexes. In many cases, police responding to those calls have found fewer than 10 people, many of whom are wearing masks and keeping their distance from each other, she said.
UNC officials estimated based on internet IP addresses logging into their system that only about 17,000 students are in town out of a nearly 30,000 student body, she said.
Most of them are doing the right thing by wearing masks and social distancing, Hemminger said. She has heard from UNC officials that others are “getting contradictory messaging” about the three W’s from their friends and families back home “who want their child to have a normal college experience.”
“That’s really hard for a student trying to figure out what they’re supposed to do,” Hemminger said. “The community is saying this is important to wear your mask, to stay six feet apart, to not do these things, yet other forces (say something different). ... We see people who don’t believe in these actions, and then we cross the 10,000-people mark of deaths in our state.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 3:35 PM with the headline "After students rush Franklin St., Chapel Hill and UNC seek to better enforce COVID rules."
