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'I just wish this year could have been different' | Triad Tarheels react to remote learning switch

UNC-Chapel Hill announced it is switching to remote learning after several coronavirus clusters were reported on campus.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Gabe Capel didn't think he'd be packing up his dorm room at UNC-Chapel Hill so soon but then he got the call from his parents--they wanted him home in Rockingham County.

"I'm gonna make as much positive as I can out of the situation. I understand that the University is just trying to, like, confirm our safety but I just wish this year could have been different," Freshman Gabe Capel said.

Capel came to campus about a week and a half ago on a full-ride scholarship. Most of his classes were online but he did have an in-person economics class. He went to those lectures wearing a mask and with six feet of social distance between his classmates.

The University announced Monday it was suspending in-person instruction after several coronavirus clusters among students were reported.

"My roommate, his friend tested positive for the virus Saturday so I just get paranoid easy when it comes to stuff like this," Capel said.

Capel has Crohn's disease and knows he is more at risk for the coronavirus.

The University is asking students who can leave on-campus housing to do so.

Students who don't have a place to stay, don't have internet, are international students or are student-athletes can stay on campus.

Capel, like most students, cancelled his student housing contract but for others, it's not that simple.

"I signed my lease last year so there was no predicting that this was gonna happen," Junior Isabel Reyna said.

She said her classes were all online before UNC announced the change but she will not be going home to Thomasville because she is still paying for an off-campus apartment.

"I can't go to class, I'm not gonna be on campus, I don't want to be holed up in my little apartment all day long with my family," Reyna said.

Meanwhile, students like herself are still paying tuition and other fees. 

The UNC System said the changes at Chapel HIll are not affecting other colleges like UNC Greensboro.

"Each school is very different and each school is responding very differently to this," Greensboro developer Marty Kotis said.

Kotis is a UNC System Board of Governor's member. Chapel Hill's move to remote learning was not his call, but he is worried about the financial impacts the switch could have.

"I think we're looking at a significant financial burden right now on students and their families," Kotis said, "I don't think it's fair that they should be charged certain fees that really have to do with being on campus and the experience there."

Caple worries it may only be a matter of time before clusters force other North Carolina universities to move to remote learning.

"I thought everybody at Chapel Hill would be good as long as we wore masks but that proved me wrong," Caple said.

Caple also said he feels grateful for the few days he did get to be on campus.

RELATED: UNC-Chapel Hill suspending in-person undergraduate instruction following COVID-19 clusters

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RELATED: Another COVID-19 cluster reported in UNC-Chapel Hill housing

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