When anyone dies, it is a tragedy. And when that death affects a fellow student, we feel a special sense of solidarity.
So we are understandably upset and disturbed when it appears that the Department of Housing and Residential Education has deliberately withheld information regarding a death that occurred when a parent fell from a lofted bed in Kenan dorm — especially because it highlights a danger that affects thousands of students in on-campus housing.
It only adds insult to injury that the community has been kept in the dark since the event occurred in the early hours of Aug. 19. One wonders if this information was ever intended to be made public.
Certainly this is a sensitive topic. It would not be fair to portray this as a straightforward issue. Consideration must be given to the family involved and their privacy.
But the Housing department serves all students. It must accordingly give consideration to the entire campus community when deciding how to handle a sensitive subject.
Falling from a bed in a campus dorm entails certain risks, but severe injury or death hardly seems like a present danger — which is exactly why students should know when it occurs. Students can’t plan for a risk they are led to underestimate.
And without knowing what happened, it’s also impossible to evaluate the department’s handling of the incident. Accountability and trust are subverted.
Certainly the Housing department understood the relevance of this event to students. Yet the department’s actions suggest that it felt they should be left in the dark out of concern for the privacy of the family involved.
We simply cannot agree. While we respect the family’s privacy, we cannot in good conscience endorse withholding that someone has died in a dorm on campus. This is especially so given that UNC is a public university that is supposed to be directly accountable to the people. Students deserve to know the truth.
