Message about Community Standards conduct summary

Dear Carolina Community,   

We announced a set of community standards at the beginning of the year that were designed to help keep our students, faculty, staff, and neighbors healthy and safe. As our fall semester winds to a close, we know that many members of our community are interested in how we have adhered to these standards and addressed reports of non-compliance. Today, in the interest of greater transparency, we’re announcing a plan to share more information regarding our approach.  

The majority of Carolina students worked hard to follow our community standards and continue to do so. We appreciate their efforts and dedication to the safety of our campus community.   

The community standards were developed to hold our community members accountable to each other during the pandemic. It’s important to us that our administration of the standards is fair and balanced, allowing for necessary due process and a response that defines appropriate action for the range of violations. Reports of violations go through a review process that may result in an array of actions, ranging from developmental interventions to loss of housing or disenrollment. 

Starting this month, the University will share key data on at least a quarterly basis (Feb. 1, May 1, and Aug. 1) that summarizes our community standards referrals for violations and outcomes on our Carolina Together website. We will do this in a way that balances our desire for transparency with ensuring that individuals’ privacy rights aren’t compromised. We will continually assess the data to evaluate whether we may release it on a more frequent basis when we can assure the information is not identifiable to individuals. Effective today, you will see the following data provided on the Carolina Together website:  

Data from August 1-October 31, 2020.  

Every referral is reviewed to assess whether the reported action, if verifiable, represents a violation of the standards. As this initial dashboard shows, approximately 80% of the total referrals resulted in a finding of responsibility and a consequence for the students involved.  

We hope that this information is of value to our university community and stakeholders to better understand our philosophy and approach to compliance with our community standards. As the weather turns colder and we all spend increasing amounts of time indoors, it is more important than ever that everyone observe the standards in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.   

• Wear a mask covering your mouth and nose at all times indoors and outdoors when physical distancing cannot be maintained   
• Wash your hands frequently   
• Observe physical distancing whenever and wherever possible  
• Avoid large crowds and observe campus, local, and state restrictions on the size of gatherings

A healthy Carolina requires everyone’s attention and commitment. I appreciate your partnership in this effort — and all you are doing to keep our university community safe and well.   

Sincerely,   

Amy Johnson 
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs