The Quad: A COVID-19 Test for Science

COVID-19 and Campus

Five years ago this week, I was cleaning out my closets, sending heartfelt emails to old friends, and embarking on extremely elaborate baking experiments. Ralph Baric was talking to global public health leaders about COVID-19.

It’s been a long five years since then, but Baric is still caught in the middle of a discussion about COVID-19’s origins. Only now it also includes a debate about the value of science funding.

He’s perhaps the world’s leading coronavirologist, and his UNC-Chapel Hill lab was involved in some of the most important medical breakthroughs that eventually lifted the lockdowns. But his methods involve engineering viruses in ways that can increase their transmissibility or virulence. Critics say that it’s risky and that similar research by some of his collaborators may have even created the pandemic.

What’s most interesting, to me, is that Baric doesn’t disagree that that’s a possibility. Though he has said COVID-19 is much more likely to have come from nature, he acknowledged the risks of his work and has even criticized other virologists for doing it with reduced safety protocols. He has just said that, with stringent precautions in place, the benefits are worth it.

Looking back at his lab today is a chance to wrestle with one of the most difficult—and most important—test cases for the benefits of research. If Baric is right, his work may be essential to avoiding another pandemic. But it involves two things the Trump administration is targeting: federal funding and international cooperation. Baric is one of the state’s largest recipients of National Institutes of Health funding and has collaborated with researchers in China.

A Chapel Hill Lab Faces New Threats Five Years After Covid-19

–Matt Hartman

Thanks for reading The Quad, a higher education newsletter written by Matt Hartman and Erin Gretzinger and edited by Emily Stephenson. Reach us with tips or ideas at highered@theassemblync.com.

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The Quad’s Office Hours

Thank you to everyone who attended our first-ever Quad event on Tuesday! Along with Sarah Brown from The Chronicle of Higher Education and Colleen Murphy from Open Campus, we discussed how President Donald Trump has begun to reshape higher education through a series of executive actions and what the moves mean for North Carolina colleges and universities.

Watch the full conversation here.

We didn’t have time to answer every question we got during the event, so we wanted to tackle one today in The Quad. A viewer asked: This is the time of year when students are committing to schools. Have you heard of any instances of grad student admissions being rescinded?

We looked into it and asked all R1 and R2 institutions in the state the same question. Here’s what they said:

• East Carolina University, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina State University, UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Greensboro, and Wake Forest University told The Assembly that no admission offers have been rescinded. The five UNC system schools also confirmed that they did not alter the class sizes of graduate student programs or change their admissions processes in other ways.
• UNC-Chapel Hill said that while no offers have formally been rescinded, some admitted students have received “notice on their acceptance letter that their admittance is contingent upon continued funding.” The university said that individual programs determine the class sizes. While The Transmitter previously reported that its biological and biomedical science program planned to reduce class sizes by 25 percent, UNC-CH said “most programs” are still determining whether changes will need to be made and more information will be available in the coming weeks. Additionally, some acceptance letters may be slightly delayed as programs figure out their final numbers.
• Duke University told The Transmitter in early March that it did not plan to adjust its graduate admissions for at least one program in neuroscience, though that was before the university implemented a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting measures due to federal funding uncertainty. Duke did not respond to our request for comment.
• UNC-Charlotte and Appalachian State University did not respond to our requests by the time of publication.

We’ll answer more questions from the event in upcoming editions of The Quad, and we want to hear what other questions you have, too. We know this is a time of great uncertainty for higher education (to put it lightly), so let us know what’s on your mind and send us an email at highered@theassemblync.com.

—Erin Gretzinger

Academic Calendar

The North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges will meet for committee meetings on April 2-3. The full board will meet on April 4 at 9 a.m. Here are the details and the agenda.

What to watch: The finance committee will provide an update on the community college system’s budget for the 2025-27 biennium, including how Gov. Josh Stein’s recently released budget will align with the system’s priorities. Propel NC, the system’s proposed new funding model, would receive around $34.2 million in recurring funding in the governor’s proposal, while the system asked for more than $68.5 million. We’ll be watching to see how the system and board react to the proposed allocation and what their next steps are as they lobby the General Assembly to fully fund the new formula.

The North Carolina General Assembly’s higher education committee in the House will meet on April 2 at 10 a.m. Here is a link to the details and agenda.

What to watch: The House committee will consider three bills at its next meeting, including the revival of the North Carolina REACH Act. The bill, sponsored by 10 Republicans, would require all UNC System and community college students to complete at least three credit hours of instruction that “provide a comprehensive overview of the major events and turning points of American history and government.” The bill would also require students to read “in their entirety” seven historical documents. The bill passed the House in 2023 but stalled in the Senate. In 2024, the UNC System passed a new policy that requires students to study the same documents as the REACH Act mandated minus the state constitution, and a dedicated class would not be required. That UNC System policy will go into effect in July 2025, while the REACH Act, if passed, would go into effect for the 2026-27 academic year.

–Erin Gretzinger

Reach our team with tips or ideas at highered@theassemblync.com.

Assigned Reading

Professor Trump: The New York Times details the potential implications of a mandated receivership for Columbia University’s Middle Eastern studies department, and the paper points out that Trump went after such departments in North Carolina during his first term. The Education Department ordered Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill in 2019 to revise their joint Middle East studies program.

–Erin Gretzinger