The OC Voice is a portion of the OC Report newsletter where local residents may have a platform to talk about local issues they care about. Susan Romaine is a Carrboro Town Council member.
Happy first day of classes, Tar Heels!
When our daughter was in college, each year, right around this time, I would write her a letter, fold it into an envelope, and tuck it into her duffle bag. She had earned a full-ride basketball scholarship, and I urged her to embrace the responsibilities that came with the opportunity: work hard, put team first and lead by example. My “pep talks” were preachy, I admit. Nevertheless, I felt compelled to write them. A maternal instinct, I suppose.
It is the same mom gene that compels me to write to you as you return to campus in the throes of a global pandemic. In short: I care about you. My neighbors do, too. At the same time, we are concerned about the prospect of 20,000 college students flocking in from all over the country and world. More frankly, many community members are downright terrified. They are terrified that wearing masks, social distancing, and hand-washing — norms that we as a community have largely embraced over the past five months — will be tossed aside as incompatible with a collegiate lifestyle.
So, Tar Heels, my challenge to you is this: prove them wrong. You have an opportunity to turn this semester into something extraordinary. You have a chance to achieve something far greater than any individual accomplishment. It is rising collectively to the occasion of an unparalleled crisis. Success depends on student leaders who not only follow and model our community’s safety standards; they show the courage to call out peers who let down their guard. Many months of careful planning have produced UNC’s COVID-19 Roadmap, a detailed set of policies, guidelines, and contingency plans. But really, there is only one sure path to success: students monitoring students when no one else is looking. You are each other’s keepers.
At a recent Chapel Hill Town Council meeting, George Barrett, executive director of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center, spoke on behalf of Northside and other historically Black neighborhoods surrounding UNC’s campus. By socially isolating, these residents, many of whom are elderly, Black and especially vulnerable to COVID-19, have shouldered tremendous sacrifice while serving as “models of how we are supposed to act and the behaviors we are supposed to have". Yet this summer, these residents have gazed out their window to see large gatherings of students not living up to the same standards. “Normal life for you can cause someone else to lose their life,” Barrett said. “Honor their sacrifice!”
I do not underestimate the difficulty of the situation you have been handed. It must feel brutally unfair to be deprived the “full” collegiate experience. Congregation and conversation go hand-in-hand with life at UNC. So do semesters abroad, weekend road trips, packed houses at the Dean Dome and Halloween parties on Franklin Street. Instead, you are being asked to stay put, stay apart, and mask up. Many activities in which you hope to participate may be curtailed, modified, restricted or even canceled.
But through a daily ritual of sacrifice, you are contributing and paying tribute to the community where you live. Honor your fellow students. Honor administrators, professors, housekeepers, groundskeepers, cafeteria workers and other faculty and staff. Honor the doctors, nurses and other health care providers at your world-class hospital. And honor this community, of which you are a valued and integral part. When you look back on this year, I hope you will be filled with the utmost pride, knowing that you helped a caring community reach its finest hour. What better way to be known as a Tar Heel.
If you live in Orange County and want to make your voice heard on something you care about locally, email city@dailytarheel.com.
