When the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution in 1791, the right to petition and protest was made official.
And more than 200 years later, students today are still gathering for petitions, adding to an already rich campus history of demonstrations and protests.
But sometimes, the impact of these protests is questionable.
"The effectiveness of a march depends on the issue," said Ferrel Guillory, the director of the UNC Program on Public Life. "Sometimes it has to do with not just one, but the accumulation of events and protests."
And many campus groups, such as UNC's Students for a Democratic Society, have overarching themes that run through all of their marches and protests.
Recently, several of SDS's events focused on the war in Iraq, which hit the five-year mark this month. Members localized the issue by protesting in front of the Army recruitment center on Franklin Street.
Both the march Wednesday and the one on March 20, 2007, were sponsored by SDS and the UNC Coalition Against the War and served not as a direct call for congressional action but more to raise awareness of the fourth and fifth anniversaries of the Iraq War, respectively.
The aim of the protests was to let their voices be heard that the war should end, though not necessarily immediately.
"Don't organize for a march, but for a campaign you are trying to win," said Salma Mirza, senior organizer of Student Action for Workers, a group that advocates for fair labor laws.
Both years, students were charged to walk out of their noon classes to march from the Pit to Franklin Street showcasing their signs, T-shirts and opinions against the war.
"We want to see change in a different way," said Ben Carroll, a sophomore member of SDS. "It's motivated by anger and hope for something different."
In a different march, SDS members tried to shut down the Army recruitment office on Franklin Street by leading a march to the location. On Nov. 15 protesters marched armed with a black coffin full of pictures of fallen soldiers from the war.
Although creative and unique, today's protests, Guillory said, do not compare to those of past decades.
"No intensity on this campus matches what I went through in the late '60s around the Vietnam War," Guillory said.
But not all marches on campus deal with foreign issues. Some seek to make change on this campus.
On Nov. 15, 2006, more than 40 people marched against the outsourcing of jobs in the School of Dentistry. The 15 workers were still let go, but the march helped delay their final date.
Student Action for Workers participated in that march and also has supported other workers on campus. In November 2005, members led a controversial protest in support of the rights of dining hall workers at UNC.
After refusing to move from the dining hall areas, SAW members were threatened with arrest, but even took turns sleeping by their display to convey their message.
Although their actions caused little response from the administration, members said there was another effective outcome.
"I think that creating student power on campus is very important," Mirza said. "We really show that we are united and that we have a conscious and that we want to live the Carolina Way."
Whether effective or not in policy- or action-change, marches can serve to express participants' opinions that otherwise might go unheard.
"It can feel helpless to write a letter to a legislature or call and talk to a secretary," said senior Linda Gomaa, a member of SDS. "It feels more like actually doing something if you get up."
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
