About a dozen student activists stormed the lobby of South Building on Wednesday afternoon armed with an array of cleaning supplies.
The demonstrators went through the motions of mopping, sweeping and vacuuming the lobby - signifying their effort to "clean up South Building," they said.
The students - who were members of Student Action with Workers, an advocacy group for UNC employees - shouted pro-worker slogans throughout the first floor of the building and lobbied to speak with Chancellor James Moeser.
"What we were trying to do today is get publicity and show the chancellor that we're serious," SAW member Mike Hachey, a junior international studies major, said after the protest.
The demonstration interrupted a meeting between Moeser and two members of his cabinet.
"Other than interrupting a meeting, I think people in South Building are accustomed to interruptions like that from time to time," said Nancy Davis, associate vice chancellor for student relations, who was meeting with Moeser at the time. "And it was also very close to the lunch hour so it wasn't terribly disruptive."
The activists presented Moeser with a seven-page letter of demands, among which was a request for the unionization of employees of Aramark Corp., UNC's food services provider.
Afterward, the group left South Building and chanted their way across campus toward Lenoir Dining Hall to "clean" the offices in the building's basement.
SAW members said the demonstration in Lenoir was directed at Derek Lochbaum, UNC's director of trademarks and licensing.
