Hello all! Follow this thread for live updates on the Chapel Hill Town Council special meeting tonight @chapelhillgov
via @kecarpenter1

Tonight the town council will be discussing:
1. Appointing a new Town Attorney
2. The UNC-Chapel Hill Roadmap for Re-Opening
3. Elliott Road Extension Project Next Steps

The meeting starts off with a proclamation celebrating the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment in August.

Council Member Buansi said that he urges everyone to go out and vote in the upcoming election.

The council will be discussing adopting Juneteenth as a town-wide holiday in September after community outreach. This follows the June 19th proclamation declaring that day as Juneteenth.

Next, Ann Anderson was chosen to be the next Town Attorney. She is replacing Ralph Karpinos who retired after 32 years in February. She will officially start in September.

Anderson said "I have an amazing career so far and this is a new highlight for me."

Now, Robert Blouin, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost for UNC-Chapel Hill, will be discussing UNC's roadmap with the council.

He said they have been working very closely with the UNC system office and the Orange County Department of Public Health when putting together the roadmap and they update it every week.

Blouin said they will be working more closely with UNC Healthcare to add a second test lab along with LabCorp. LabCorp will be used when a quick turn around is not crucial.

On Greek Life, "We ask and will demand from our fraternities and sororities a plan that will be sent to the OC Health Department for approval, if necessary," Blouin said.

Since the houses are not located on campus, he said they will be working closely with the town to keep everyone safe.

On faculty and staff, Blouin said they are giving faculty full accommodations to support them and give them flexibility on whether to return to campus or not.

"We expect a decrease in density among faculty and staff on campus." They also gave students the opportunity to get out of their housing contract in order to de-densify.

Already 25,000 UNC students have signed the acknowledgement of community standards.

The Carolina Together campaign is using behavioral science to help get everyone to wear a mask, follow social distancing guidelines and wash their hands often.

They will be handing out packages to students containing masks, hand sanitizers and other items to keep everyone healthy. Also, they will be setting up visual cues around campus to remind everyone to follow the community standards.

Allison Lazard, an associate professor for the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, and her team researched the best way to communicate safety guidelines to the public.

She said "In all of our focus groups, we have not found a single person who has not suffered in some way during this pandemic."

Other findings showed young adults wanted to wear face coverings to protect their families and the community. Young adults also acknowledge the barriers to face coverings like the discomfort, but most say "It's the right thing to do."

This is all in an effort to figure out the most effective ways to communicate with the student body through the pandemic.

Council member Buansi asked what type of consequences of not following the community standards. Blouin said for faculty and staff, being in compliance is a condition of employance.

For students, Blouin said it would depend on the violation, but it could affect the students' presence on campus or they might be de-enrolled from a course.

Council member Jessica Anderson asked if there would be a way to test everyone and not just people who meet the requirement. Blouin said they will be following CDC guidelines and not be any testing for anyone who is asymptomatic. He said the only exception would be athletes

Anderson then asked about the concerns raised by the public when the roadmap was presented to the Carrboro Town Council. Blouin reiterated the most difficult part is that fraternity and sorority houses are located off-campus and therefore are not legally in their jurisdiction.

He said the biggest card that they could use is disassociation.

On students traveling home, "We have no legal right to hold our students on campus against their will," Blouin said. "The students have the right to travel unless the government prohibits it." He said they've tried to limit traveling however by eliminating breaks.

Blouin said UNC will be launching a dashboard that will track students and staff testing. It will allow the community to see the number of positive cases versus number of tests and will include other useful features.

UNC is trying to find ways to include data on how people of all races are being affected by COVID-19 on campus without revealing anyone's identity.

"UNC has ordered millions of masks for faculty, staff and students," Blouin said. "Faculty and staff will have unlimited access to PPE."

Following more questions from council members, Blouin reiterated students who live off campus and test positive for COVID-19 will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Whether or not there will be a support system to care for the student at home or even travel home.

The council discussed exploring different options for enforcing the community standards off-campus and working together with UNC to find out areas where people are less likely to following those standards.

Council member Amy Ryan said she wants the roadmap to use the term community as acknowledging Chapel Hill and Carrboro along with the campus. The roadmap currently uses community to reference solely the campus. She said this could unify everyone to work together.

Ryan wanted to know about pay for faculty and staff if someone is unable to work or if they no longer have a position since the university went fully remote. Blouin said they will still be paid.

Up next, public comments on the UNC Roadmap. There are about 15 people signed up to speak.

One of the concerns is that most off-campus housing is located in the Northside and Pine Knolls communities, where many at-risk populations live. The community member said he wanted to reiterate the need for the town and the university to work to together to enforce guidelines.

Another person raised the concern that the education about the guidelines will "fall on deaf ears" and that face coverings are not completely effective.

A UNC student studying history said she wanted to emphasize that leaders have the choice to not make a decision that may kill someone even if they feel forced to do so.

A recent UNC graduate said the university should be ashamed that they are prioritizing tuition over student health.