The UNC Faculty Executive Committee met with Provost Bob Blouin and pharmacy professor Tim Ives on Monday to discuss the decision-making process for reopening UNC’s campus in the spring and the Board of Governors’ decision to give the UNC-System president the power to choose a finalist for the role of chancellor.
Spring planning
“There are a number of important questions that have to get answered before we can go totally all-in in terms of our preparation,” Blouin said in reference to planning for the spring.
These questions include whether the University will continue remote learning or move toward partial re-entry, whether mandatory testing will be implemented for students and how either method will impact students with financial hardship.
“I think we’re all still trying to figure out some semblance of what this new normal is,” he said.
Blouin explained the decision-making process:
- Groups such as the Campus and Community Advisory Committee and theroadmap implementation team will advise Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz on the best course of action,
- The chancellor will make a decision in consultation with a leadership team and
- Then the Implementation Team will apply said decision.
“We would expect to make some of those critical decisions, with regard to the (semester start) date and the mode of re-entry by the middle of October,” Blouin said.
Blouin said one of his main goals is to ensure students know exactly which classes will be in-person and which classes will be remote well before returning to campus.
