Column: Paying a visit to the BOG

After months of attempting to change the Board of Governors’ collective opinion on the closing of three UNC centers, on Friday, in Charlotte, we decided to shut the process down.

We, concerned students, faculty and staff of the UNC system, intentionally disrupted the meeting with a series of statements.

After several students were led away from the meeting by police, chairman John Fennebresque called for a recess. We continued to chant.

Why risk arrest at an otherwise humdrum meeting?

We shut the meeting down because of our commitment to the public service mission of the UNC system. We shut the meeting down for the thousands of student, faculty, staff and community voices ignored in this process. We shut the meeting down for the residents of North Carolina, who face rapidly increasing rates of poverty and increased voting restrictions, two issues that these centers addressed in their programming.

Most importantly, we shut the meeting down in recognition of the fact that the current organizational structure of the BOG will continue to fail UNC community members unless changes are made.

Faced with this, the BOG moved to a smaller room that could not accommodate the public and unanimously passed the measure to close the centers.

I checked my phone during a spare moment, dismayed by the BOG’s collective agreement to close the centers. After scrolling through texts from students at Chapel Hill following the live feed of the meeting, I came across a reflection from U.S. Congressman John Lewis. “55 years ago today,” he posted, “I was arrested for the first time for protesting segregated lunch counters in downtown Nashville.”

The post reminded me of the importance of the work we can do to speak out against injustice. We did not change the BOG’s mind on Friday, yet our action, like other efforts before it, will be remembered as a time when our leaders failed and the public took notice. While thousands have already spoken out against the decision, it is a time for us all to take sides.

And so we ask our Chancellor, our Provost and our Board of Trustees, what are you going to do? Statements of disappointment are not sufficient in a time that calls for courage and the willingness to face criticism. Now is the time to say no to the BOG and to mean it.