Dear Colleagues,
In anticipation of our return to classes next week, I would like to direct you to some material that may help you and your students cope with Eve Carson’s murder. We have posted on the Faculty Governance Web site a sheet of information for faculty and staff that was developed by Dr. Allen O’Barr, Director of Counseling and Wellness Services here. It gives useful advice relevant to the aftermath of any tragedy.
Each tragedy has unique social dimensions. In this case we have suffered the loss of a popular student leader with incredible promise. Eve Carson was a special student among all of the special students that constitute our Carolina student body. The capacity for rapid and widespread Web communication means that students are exposed to recent events through multiple lenses, clear and distorted, and harsh words and unabated anger are too easily accessible. Sensitivity to the complexity of these issues will help everyone maintain the values that unite us here at Carolina over the next few weeks.
A celebration of the life of Eve Carson will be held on Tuesday, March 18, in the Dean E. Smith Center. Details are available at the Web link devoted to Eve from the Carolina home page. Many of you will attend, and for those of you who are unavailable next Tuesday I commend the remarks by Eve Carson’s father that are posted on our Carolina Web site.
Even with the charges filed by police, there will be lingering concerns about campus safety. Officers from our Department of Public Safety patrol campus on a regular basis, and of course our UNC officers work closely with the Chapel Hill Police and other law enforcement agencies. By the way, please sign up for the text messaging capability being developed as a part of Alert Carolina, a new safety awareness campaign, for people who have cell phones with text capability.
Each of you must decide how to help students manage their assignments and exams. I encourage you to be mindful of the stress that this violent death has caused, and respond accordingly when academic or personal questions arise. And thanks to all of you for helping move this tumultuous spring semester toward the best closure possible for both our students and our University.
Sincerely yours,
Joe Templeton
Chair of the Faculty