The area’s local higher educational institutions are monitoring the COVID-19 impacts on students and faculty. The start of the year locally comes as at least one of the state's institutions, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, announced a switch to online courses due to a spike in student cases.

Brunswick Community College was one of the first of the area’s colleges to begin its fall semester, which started Monday.

Most of BCC's curriculum courses are online; however, the college is offering a limited number of face-to-face classes for programs that require hands-on learning, such as its cosmetology, welding and nursing programs, said London Schmidt, the college's director of public relations and marketing, in an email.

"We have more face-to-face courses in our Continuing Education and Workforce Development programs that require hands-on learning," she said. 

"For all classes, we are using the standard precautions to keep our students and instructors as safe as possible, in light of the conditions arising from the pandemic," she said. "These measures include social distancing, requiring face coverings, checking student temperatures and symptoms upon entry to class, and reduced student numbers in labs or classrooms."

The fall 2020 semester is unprecedented for colleges and universities across the state, as entire class schedules and course loads for the year have been altered, many turning to virtual class programming to keep from spreading the coronavirus to students and faculty at campuses.

Wilmington-based law firm Shipman & Wright on Aug. 10 filed a lawsuit on behalf of UNC System employees that claims the system's safety measures are inadequate to have students return to campuses, according to the firm. 

Meanwhile, officials with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced recently that it would shift all instruction for undergraduate students to remote learning starting Aug. 19.

The university reported a rise in positive COVID-19 tests over the week of Aug. 10-16 and reported in a release Monday that 177 students were in isolation and 349 are in quarantine, both on and off campus.

Ahead of the start of its classes, the University of North Carolina Wilmington announced it was monitoring COVID-19 conditions at the university in light of the recent news of the spike of cases at UNC-Chapel Hill.

UNCW is scheduled to start its fall semester classes Wednesday.

"We are closely observing our campus for similar trends, and we are prepared to pivot to an online modality should conditions warrant. Most of our students moved into campus housing this past weekend, and our classes are scheduled to begin on Aug. 19," university officials said in a news release Monday. "As outlined on our data dashboard, fewer than 10 positive cases were identified last week."

As of Monday, UNCW reported that 10 of UNCW’s 150 quarantine spaces were being used, adding, "each one of those is for travel-related quarantine."

"As part of its comprehensive health and safety planning for the fall semester, UNCW reserved a residence hall to serve as its quarantine space for residential students affected by COVID," university officials said in an email Monday. "We have arranged food delivery, linens, and IT support so that they can access their classes remotely as needed; a member of the Student Health Center team will reach out to each student daily to check on them, and will arrange medical care as needed."

As part of its fall planning efforts, the university has implemented a number of health and safety measures that were developed in collaboration with the New Hanover County Health Department and in accordance with the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, officials said.

UNCW has planned a gradual return to campus, and changes to its plans will be determined by guidance and data from the CDC, state, local and university health professionals, stated the university website.

"UNCW has adopted community health standards; reorganized academic course schedules to include a larger portion of online and hybrid modalities; adjusted work schedules and continued to support remote work arrangements for employees; modified our move-In schedule and reconfigured furniture in buildings across campus to support physical distancing; enhanced our comprehensive cleaning protocol; installed hundreds of hand sanitizer stations; ordered thousands of face coverings for faculty, staff and students; installed awareness signage across campus; established our quarantine, testing and contact tracing protocols; training for students, faculty and staff; and much more," officials said in the email.

UNCW has created a “Best for the Nest” website and guide for more information, frequently asked questions and updates. The university is also providing two face coverings to students, faculty and staff, according to the UNCW website.

And Cape Fear Community College has implemented several methods of instruction to safely accommodate students and to keep its campus community safe, said Sonya Johnson, college spokeswoman, in an email.

"This is a challenging time for colleges and universities across the nation, and we are thankful that the community college model allows us to implement practical solutions quickly," she said

CFCC classes are slated to begin Aug. 21, but the college advises that its current methods of instruction, which include a mix of online and some in-person instruction, could change as needed throughout the semester, according to CFCC’s Fall Return Plan.

CFCC is also opening by adhering to guidance from national, state and local health officials, as well as institutional leaders across the state. 

“The health and safety of our campus community is of the utmost importance. CFCC has been working to prepare our campus for the limited return of students, faculty, and staff for months,” Johnson said.

​The CFCC campus is being thoroughly cleaned using COVID-19 cleaning protocols; has placed visual cues throughout campus to promote social distancing; erected plexiglass barriers to promote healthy exchanges in high-traffic areas; and created web resources to assist students and employees, she said.

“Cape Fear Community College understands that students whose universities have transitioned to online-only courses may be weighing their options," Johnson said. "We know that these changes may not make sense financially for some university students and we want to remind those students that Cape Fear Community College offers affordable classes that are directly transferable to North Carolina universities. Students still have time to get started at CFCC this fall. Sessions start in August, September, and October."