Chapel Hill's protest problem
Published November 30, 2015
Editorial by Charlotte Observer, November 29, 2015.
From an editorial Tuesday in the Raleigh News & Observer:
A town hall meeting at UNC-Chapel Hill to discuss racial issues on campus was disrupted last week by students who, instead of engaging in a dialogue, presented demands of administrators.
Among those demands were the removal of Silent Sam, the Confederate monument in a prominent campus spot; the firing of new UNC system president-designate Margaret Spellings; the abolition of tuition and fees; the hiring of more minority faculty members; and a general improvement in racial inclusion on campus.
Campus administrators have always understood the passion in young people and the need to hear them. But protests at the University of Missouri that resulted in the president’s resignation and protests on other campuses, including the University of South Carolina, are a challenge for university chiefs not used to dealing with aggressive demonstrations.
All they can do is encourage dialogue but demand that students listen as well as protest. In Missouri, the defining moment was the football team’s threat not to play unless the president resigned. Will Chapel Hill’s minority athletes, particularly in men’s basketball and football, join protests with similar threats?
The truth is that racial tensions have been present on campuses nationwide. Minority students have gained admission on campuses, but some complain there’s little support once they’re there.
Students are supposed to be passionate about those issues in which they believe. Sometimes, their protests make a constructive difference – the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the Vietnam-era protests being good examples. The challenge for those who teach and lead them is to ensure that discussion, not just demands, define any confrontation.
