Message from Chancellor Sartarelli: UNCW to Maintain COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Increase Campus Event Opportunities

MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2021

Dear Seahawk Community:  

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to UNCW’s pandemic protocols. Your efforts have proven effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19 on campus, as our dashboard data demonstrate. To support a favorable finish for the fall semester, we plan to maintain our indoor face covering requirement and other measures unless otherwise announced.  

Updated In-Person Activity/Event Guidance 

Given the general downward trend in positive cases on campus and in the New Hanover County area, as well as the steady increase in vaccination rates, we have decided to increase the opportunities for UNCW departments, organizations and programs to hold in-person campus events. 

Earlier this semester, the university moved events, activities and meetings not directly related to student learning to virtual formats or postponed them. Many offices, programs and units across campus still held appropriate in-person activities, and their success has provided an effective blueprint for expanding such offerings. Any units that want to host an in-person event should work with their divisional leadership and the UNCW Health and Safety Committee, under the guidance of Student Health, to review plans, confirm COVID-19 protocols and manage the event accordingly.  

Important Factors 

The university’s leadership team will continue to consider several factors when making the decision to alter COVID-19 guidance, including CDC, NCDHHS and UNC System policies; local public health guidance; the level of transmission in North Carolina; and the overall vaccination rate in our state. Ideally, vaccination rates in our state will continue to increase to a large percentage of the population overall, a level that public health experts indicate would provide greater protection against COVID-19 and its variants. 

Please see Chancellor Sartarelli's full message here.