UNC Town Hall Interrupted By Protest

As the UNC Town Hall meeting on race and inclusion began Thursday evening, a group of protesting students interrupted moderator Clarence Page to make demands of the administrators present, including Chancellor Carol Folt and members of the board of trustees.

“We have some demands for Chancellor Folt and the administration that are combating anti-blackness on this campus,” a protester said. “Right now we’re going to read these demands out and you’re going to sit here and you’re going to listen because we have things we need to say.”

A few of the demands included the immediate removal of Silent Sam, the firing of new UNC system president Margaret Spellings, and recognition of student athletes as university employees. The demand for the firing of Spellings received a loud ovation.

“Any future president must be decided collectively by students, staff, faculty and those living in North Carolina,” a protester said.

The protest lasted nearly half an hour, with Page attempting to intervene on one occasion, but he was ignored.

After their demands, the protesters began reading demands made by students at the University of Missouri and the University of Cape Town as a show of solidarity.

They also read demands made by UNC’s Black Student Movement from 1968 to illustrate how they felt UNC is still dealing with minority issues.

“Do these demands not sound very familiar,” said a protester after reading the document from 1968. “It is still happening here.”

Page, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist at the Chicago Tribune, said he thought the protesters did themselves a disservice by reading so many demands.

“They have a lot to learn about public relations,” he said. “They had a list of demands, that was just fine, but when they read the demands from the University of Missouri, (the University of Cape Town), North Carolina in 1968, I think that’s asking a lot of your audience.”

As part of the protest, the group exited the event and spoke to the media outside while the event continued.

“The reason that I participated in this interruption today was because as a black student here at UNC, I have witnessed the facilitation of conversation, I’ve witness the facilitation of meetings, but I haven’t witnessed the facilitation of action,” said UNC student Charity Lackey.

The event ended with a number of students, faculty and staff voicing their concerns about race and inequality.

Chancellor Carol Folt said she would be meeting with her team to figure out what to do moving forward.

A full list of the demands made by the protesters can be found here.