Protesters arrested at BoG meeting

Four protesters were arrested and removed from Tuesday’s UNC Board of Governors meeting in Chapel Hill after ignoring several requests from officers to stop chanting and disrupting the meeting.

What started as a standard meeting quickly became a scene of chaos as police were forced to intervene when demonstrators interrupted the meeting to protest the hiring of UNC System President Margaret Spellings, who was hired in late October. Spellings is set to take office March 1.

Her hiring came amid controversy over the unexpected removal of former president Tom Ross, and the board in general for what they considered harmful practices that have continued for years.

The meeting began with formal message from the protesters to the board demanding the removal of Spellings as well as an open and transparent democratic re-appointment process.

The meeting proceeded in typical fashion until a vote calling for the discontinuation of two programs at East Carolina University: a Bachelor of Arts in art history and appreciation and a Bachelor of Science in school health education. 

The present members of the board gave their affirmative yeas only to be drowned out by the protesters’ emphatic and unsolicited nays. The vote itself was of little interest to the protesters, but served as an opportunity to voice their frustrations over Spellings and general Board of Governors activities. 

The students further disrupted the meeting by grabbing board members’ microphones and knocking their name placards to the ground. They ignored requests to be seated and continued to chant against the board with slogans such as “No justice, no peace” “When our system is under attack, stand up and fight back” and “F— the BoG.”

Several protesters were then removed from the chambers by police officers who had trouble restraining some of the students. Screams of frustration and police misconduct were heard as students were led out into the hallway. 

According to the vice president of communications for UNC, Joni Worthington, the following actions were taken against those arrested by the Orange County Magistrate: Madeleine Scanlon, charged with resisting and obstructing officer, disorderly conduct and assault inflicting serious injury of law enforcement officer; Irving David Allen, charged with resisting and obstructing an officer and disorderly conduct; Olufemi Shittu, charged with disorderly conduct and Jennifer Myers, who was detained but then was only issued a warning for trespassing. 

The bookings reports were not available online at press time. 

Zack King, president of the Association of Student Governments, which is the student-led organization that represents the students of the UNC System to the board, condemned the adversarial approach to enacting change used by the protestors. 

“I think having protesters there is good — for students to have their voices heard — but when they’re behaving like this … I don’t think it’s effective at all,” King said. “The concerns of the protestors are shared by members privately, so I do think that there is a lot of room for understanding and getting protesters more informed.”

King said that he was caught off-guard by many of the claims made by the protesters, which gave him the impression that they put their passions before the facts. One example was their claim that students pay the board’s salary, when in fact the board is made up by volunteers who receive no stipend or salary. 

Faculty Forward activist and former faculty member at East Carolina University, John Steen, said that the hiring of Margaret Spellings would increase the influence of corporate interests on UNC System policy.

“We are calling for Spellings’ resignation, but the broader platform should be more diverse — more progress and representation is needed,” Steen said. “[Historically black colleges and universities] are really under threat here.”

Steen then referred to an interview Spellings gave to The Daily Tar Heel in which Spellings defended her experience in the private sector, calling it valid experience for a position in higher education. Steen said he did not agree with this.

Also among the protesters was Millie Rosen, a Durham Public Schools teacher, who saw Spellings’ appointment in political terms, calling it a “symptom of the Republican takeover” of North Carolina.

“She was also a major supporter of No Child Left Behind, which sets unrealistic expectations for students like mine that are mostly black and brown with different backgrounds than the children of those in legislature,” Rosen said

System constituents like those who protested the meeting fear Spellings’ association with for-profit universities such as the University of Phoenix as well as her corporatized approach to higher education. 

In a survey conducted by Faculty Forward NC, 70 percent of UNC System faculty reported feeling that higher education in North Carolina is going the wrong direction. 

“We have absolutely no confidence that Spellings will turn that around,” said Zach Robinson, a professor of mathematics at ECU and member of the Faculty Forward Network. 

Spellings has been on the receiving end of several attacks questioning her support of higher tuition as well as her history of anti-LGBT statements.

“Margaret Spellings is going to turn the UNC System into a joke,” said Scanlon, a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill studying women and gender studies. 

With 40 police officers stationed at the meeting, the Durham chief of police stated that such a large protective force was not standard. 

The unusually large police presence in addition to the surprising behavior of the protesters raised questions about the board’s expectations for the meeting. The board had known about the protests but hoped that they wouldn’t turn violent. Students claimed that the police officers acted excessively in the removal of Scanlon. 

“All the actions of my officers were the result of the actions of the protesters,” said Larry Smith, interim chief of police of the Durham Police Department. 

Ryan Will contributed to the reporting of this article.