Orange County, NC, United States Hundreds of students and supporters from the University of North Carolina flooded Franklin Street in Chapel Hill on Saturday night after the basketball team beat Duke University. It is a famous UNC-Chapel Hill tradition for students to celebrate a victory against rival Duke.
“I’ve not seen so many people in so long. It was definitely wild,” said Hannah Willcox, general manager of Sup Dogs.
Willcox said she expected this to happen even during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Newcomer, sophomores … they will want to rush to Franklin Street. They will want to party like so many people have seen before,” she said.
UNC-Chapel Hill leaders said in a letter Sunday that they had received hundreds of student complaints related to the celebration in Franklin Street.
“These clues will be evaluated and it is found that students who have violated our COVID-19 standards will be subject to developmental or disciplinary action,” the school leaders said in a statement.
The city of Chapel Hill and Orange County have been trying for months to keep coronavirus numbers low.
‘We meet all the time to talk about how to do it together and to keep people safe, and we still want our businesses to survive the pandemic, and you can only do that by using safe practices because people must feel safe to go to business and [the] business must have safe practices, ”said Pam Hemminger, mayor of Chapel Hill.
“It was so disturbing,” Hemminger added. “We worked so hard together. We sent messages together. We worked together …[we] students signed a pledge. ‘
According to Hemminger, although some people may say they understand why students and fans celebrated, it was not OK during the pandemic.
‘It’s not OK to let us down at the moment. We’re so close to the light at the end of the tunnel. The numbers are just starting to come off the holidays. We must guard. We see the light. We just have to keep going. Events like these only take us backwards. ‘
“We have to sacrifice these experiences so we can get through the pandemic,” Willcox said. ‘It’s just frustrating for businesses that follow the rules and do their best [they can] to make sure Chapel Hill is safe. ‘
Sunday was the last day for students to pull back on campus for spring. School leaders said that despite complaints about the incident, undergraduate classes will personally continue Monday as planned. However, on Monday, the faculty will be allowed to teach at a distance and teach in person on 17 February.
