Protesters Rally At UNC Board of Governors Meeting

A group protesting the UNC Board of Governors and their decision to hire Margaret Spellings as UNC System President tried to force themselves past police officers and into the meeting, which was held Friday morning at the Friday Center for Educational Innovation.

Although the meeting was an open session, protesters were denied entry and were told it was because the room was at full capacity.

“I’m here because this is clearly the wrong decision for North Carolina’s higher education system,” said Appalachian State education professor Greg McClure. “We have an individual that has a bachelor’s degree as her highest level of education preparing to run one of the nation’s oldest public institutions of higher education.”

Protesters at the UNC Board of Governors meeting on Friday.

After being denied entry, protesters began chanting “Spellings must go!” and “Let us in!”

Inside the meeting, seven protesters were detained and told to leave the building for disrupting the meeting.

“Throughout the meeting, even though they closed the doors and sat there all serious and everything, we could still hear the chanting outside,” said Michael Behrent, a history professor at Appalachian State who was one of the protesters who was detained.

After leaving the building to greet the protesters who were kicked out of the meeting, a group of three, who locked arms, tried to force their way past police officers barring the entrance to the meeting.

While police were pushing the protesters away, others began pushing forward in an attempt to break through the line of police.

One officer held up a taser and the crowd immediately backed up.

“Folks I can’t let you in,” the officer said.”I’m sorry.”

The officer did not use the taser.

The crowd began chanting “this is bull****” and “back up, back up, we want freedom, freedom, all these racists a** cops we don’t need ’em, need ’em.”

The protesters stayed until the meeting went into closed session, continuing to chant, trying to disrupt the meeting.

They left shouting “we’ll be back.”

“We feel (Spellings) brings an anti-education, pro-corporate set of values to the UNC System, which we object to very agressively,” said Harry Phillips, professor emeritus at Central Piedmont Community College.

Spellings will replace outgoing system president Tom Ross.

The election of Spellings in October capped off a 10-month saga of accusations and acrimony that began when Ross was unexpectedly forced to step down in January. The UNC Board of Governors also received criticism for possibly violating open records laws.

The video below shows the protesters attempting to make their way into the UNC Board of Governors meeting.