University letter to the Fraternity and Sorority Life community

Dear members of the Fraternity & Sorority Life community,

Over the past several months, our leadership team and members of our Carolina faculty and staff have worked tirelessly to prepare a safe campus for your return. Foremost on our minds is the health and well-being of our entire campus and local community.  Let us be clear, our community extends beyond our stone walls and includes the tens of thousands of residents who call this place home.  We are counting on you to help protect them as well as yourselves.

Many of you have recently returned to Carolina and to your fraternity and sorority houses. Over the past week, we have received reports of large gatherings at fraternity and sorority houses and other residences that included multiple violations of our Community Standards, as well as local and state public health orders.

This is extremely disappointing as it puts your well-being and the health and welfare of our community – fellow students, faculty, University staff and thousands of our neighbors – at unnecessary and great risk. Aside from public condemnation, these reckless actions impugn the integrity of the UNC fraternity and sorority system and call into question your collective ability to self-govern the behaviors of your members.

We expect you and all students to abide by state and local public health orders and our Community Standards and University Guidelines as a condition of enrollment. All of you have acknowledged your willingness to follow these standards.

Students who blatantly disregard the standards and fail to live up to the agreed upon expectations, including hosting large gatherings, are subject to restrictions on access to the campus and potential disenrollment. Student organizations that do not comply jeopardize their University recognition, including loss of funding and access to University resources and facilities.

We will follow up with all individuals and fraternities and sororities that hold unsanctioned gatherings, especially those with more than 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors, which is the state’s current public health order. To comply with the state’s guidance on gatherings, all fraternities and sororities have agreed to hold only virtual recruitment/intake events this fall

In our July 29 letter, we asked you to take this matter on with your highest level of commitment. Today, we call on you, again, to be true to your commitment. The only way we can resume on-campus teaching and learning is if everyone does their part. We – and everyone who lives here – are counting on you to help us promote a safe and healthy campus and local community.

Sincerely,

Kevin M. Guskiewicz
Chancellor

Robert A. Blouin
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost

Amy Johnson
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs