Image source: https://www.unc.edu/discover/carolina-celebrates-the-class-of-2024-under-the-lights/
Events have come fast and furious at UNC the past few weeks: protests, the police response, graduation and – unfortunately – more ill-advised and ill-timed actions by the Board of Trustees.
Today we share different perspectives on these events from two of the Coalition for Carolina’s founders: Dr. Mimi Chapman, professor in the UNC School of Social Work, and Roger Perry of Chapel Hill, former trustee and trustees’ chair.
Coalitions like ours take hard work. By definition, they bring together people whose views and points of view may differ, even as they work toward a common goal.
We are no different. Many times, our weekly newsletters reflect complete consensus. Other times, they represent a compromise. On occasion, we agree to disagree.
That is how a university community should work.
We’d like to hear your opinions, too. Write us at: https://coalitionforcarolinafoundation.org/contact/
Mimi Chapman:
As balloons and banners were going up for graduation, police were called into our campus. Many of us saw this choice as an escalation, moving what was widely described as a peaceful protest into a scary confrontation.
The result? Raised and lowered flags, arrests, suspensions, pepper spray, and circulating violent images.
Amid the debriefing of the police action, several colleagues called and told me their personal experiences of being threatened by people involved in the protests. Students or outsiders – no one knows for sure – came in close saying, “We know where you live and are going to come after you,” That is not protest, that is harassment that presents a real danger.
As I went back and forth between drafting remarks extolling graduates and attending safety briefings in case of disruption or violence, I tuned in to the internal toll this was taking. Outwardly communicating joy and excitement while inwardly debating whether students, protesters, police, or fellow faculty should be viewed friend or foe. The COVID class that entered Carolina in the fall of 2020 so deserved the joy of a full commencement experience. Yet, could we give them that when there had to be warnings on the Kenan Stadium jumbotron reminding them what types of behaviors would result in arrest?
After my own graduation duties were done, I walked across campus and saw for myself the red paint on South Building’s steps, the bloody handprints around the door, and the signs calling the interim chancellor a “fascist” and a “pig,” which in my view he is not.
I found myself depressed about all of it: the police, the protests, the threats, the brokenness and sorrow this far away conflict has brought to our campus.
Yes, we made it through graduation. But is this over? How does our campus find our way back from the fissures it has opened?
To the rescue comes the BOT? Not.
Ever ready to take advantage of a difficult situation, they held a special meeting declaring that they would divert all DEI funds to law enforcement, making a specious connection between DEI programming and the protests.
Just shameless.
At a moment when the campus so needs a bit of quiet and calm, a moment to reassess and recalibrate, the BOT decides to pour gasoline on the fire with an argument that makes no sense.
DEI programs have been around for decades and certainly have nothing to do with the dreadful conflict in the middle east that has roiled campuses across the nation. Already on social media, I see faculty members wondering if they can stay here, if this is the right place for them. For every person that asks such questions publicly, there are more quietly asking the same questions as they try to concentrate on their work.
The emotional and cognitive load this upheaval takes is substantial for those of us on campus. To worry about your own or your colleagues’ jobs, to wonder how you should handle a student who asks for an incomplete because they are distressed by the police actions on campus, to worry for suspended students and others who have been actively harassed, to manage our individual emotions and beliefs about the conflict in the Middle East.
Surely, all of that is enough, without the BOT weighing in, flexing their “power of the purse” as they create more chaos.
Roger Perry:
The University faced a volatile situation during the protests. I believe we weathered it successfully.
Compared to Columbia, UCLA and other universities across the country, both sides were decidedly calmer and more temperate. Both stepped over the line marginally, but certainly not egregiously.
Universities have long been the platform for protest and civil disobedience. That is good, not bad.
With only minor missteps, our interim Chancellor handled it all quite well. No one was hurt, no property was seriously damaged and there was minimal disruption of normal affairs.
I will stop short of saying we should celebrate and declare victory. But, considering the volatility of the situation, we should be pleased with the outcome.
As for the Board of Trustees, I agree totally with Mimi. They behaved worse than anyone on either side of the protests.
Without any public discussion and without any due diligence, they abruptly and capriciously voted to do away with all campus efforts to combat discrimination and promote diversity.
Now, they apparently want to dictate the operations of UNC’s enormously successfully Athletics Department.
What’s next? Will they be sending in plays to Mack Brown and Hubert Davis?
A great university like ours deserves better.