Maggie Young
   News Editor

Last Tuesday’s UNC Board of Governors meeting was anything but tranquil as students, faculty and staff attended to protest the imminent arrival of president-elect Margaret Spellings.

The meeting, which had to be rescheduled last-minute due to the snow, took place in the Center for School Leadership Development at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The rapid rescheduling lead to conflicts amongst the majority of the Board, resulting in only five members being physically present and many participating via conference call while over two dozen protesters attended.

The low attendance coupled with several members, including Chairman Lou Bissette, partaking in the meeting over the phone led to inefficiency in discussing the issues listed in the meeting’s agenda; there were several instances of obscured communication due to cellular feedback.

Before the meeting began members of the Faculty Forward Network presented a petition titled “Margaret Spellings wrong for NC” demanding the Board reverse their appointment of Spellings as UNC-System president, as well as creating a more transparent process by which to elect a new president.

Throughout the first half of the meeting students sat quietly and held signs that read, among other messages, “Drain the BOG,” “Spellcheck the BOG,” and “Margaret Spellings is Professor Umbridge.”

The Board began the meeting with a vote for a new Vice Chairman as Louis Bissette created a vacancy when he was elected to replace John Fennebresque as Chairman.

Scott Lampe and Roger Aiken were nominated for the seat and both were given five minutes for a mini-campaign speech advocating their appointments.

Once each had spoken the various committees offered their reports and proposals.

The Committee of Educational Planning, Policies and Programs noted that enrollment is within the UNC System up, with over 225,000 students currently enrolled across the 17-campuses.

Succeeding optimistic enrollment reports, Anna Nelson stated that over the past five years enrollment in teaching programs had decreased 30 percent.

This “particular concern” led to the proposal of a motion on behalf of the Committee of Educational Planning to discontinue the Bachelor of Arts in art history and appreciation and the Bachelor of Science in school health education degree programs.

According to the Committee, the suggestion for discontinuation comes from “low productivity” of the degrees.

The vote passed unanimously.

Next Nelson proposed the consolidation of the Master of Arts in Education in English and Master of Arts in history education into one new program titled the Master of Arts in education in curriculum and instruction.

Before Nelson had to opportunity to explain the consolidation students broke out into chants of “when students are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

What began as a typical protest, not unlike protests seen last year when the Board voted to increase tuition and fees, quickly turned into much more.

According to Chief of Police at UNC-Chapel Hill, Jeff McCracken, there were over 40 police officers in attendance.

McCracken confirmed that the officers were asked to appear in preparation for the protests.

After Chairman Bissette requested the students take their seats and discontinue their protest, students sat down at the vacant seats of absent board members. Several began chanting into the microphones, and when one student began to bang on the table with the Chairman’s gavel police began filing into the room.

By this time the attending board members had left the room to wait for the protest to be broken up. Policemen began removing students from chairs, resulting in mounting tension and overturned furniture.

One student was carried out of the room in a headlock.

Police then closed the doors to the room in attempts to separate the crowd of students.

Remaining students began chants cursing the Board.

Once the doors were open again, four students had been arrested while the others were given the option to leave the premises or be escorted out. The students consequently left the building.

UNC-Greensboro student, Olufemi Shittu, was charged with disorderly conduct. Staff member of activist group Ignite NC, Irving David Allen, was charged with resisting and obstructing an officer and disorderly conduct.

The most severe of the charges were brought against UNC-Chapel Hill senior, Madeleine Scanlon, who was charged with resisting and obstructing an officer, assault inflicting serious injury on a law enforcement officer and disorderly conduct.

It was later found that there was no probable cause to charge Jennifer Myers, the fourth of those arrested, and she was let off with a trespass warning from UNC-Chapel Hill.

All three charged were later released.

When asked about the nature of force used in the arrest of the four protesters McCracken told the press “the response of the officers here was completely dictated by the actions of the protestors today.”

McCracken expressed that although the police officers expected protests, they hoped they would not become violent.

Once things settled down again, the meeting resumed uninterrupted for the remainder of the time.

Back in session Chairman Bissette expressed his disappointment in the protests stating, “[the Board] would like to have people come to [the] meetings but we cannot allow this disruption.”

He asserted that the protests were disrespectful to the board, to the people of North Carolina, and to the faculty, staff and Chancellors across the system.

A recent study done by the Faculty Forward Network surveying approximately 1,400 faculty and staff found that the majority does not feel they are respected—but the disrespect comes from a different source.

The study showed that 70 percent of participants say North Carolina higher education is going in the wrong direction, 61 percent feel they are not supported or valued, and 63 percent of faculty said they don’t receive regular pay increases.

Chairman Bissette continued to comment on the protesters saying, “I try to keep in mind that it is a very, very small minority.”

With the meetings back in full swing the board covered a myriad of topics during their remaining time.

The first was the motion for the UNC System to join the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (SARA) in order to “make it easier for students to take online courses offered by postsecondary institutions based in another state.”

The possibility to “allow UNC to expand online/distance offerings nationwide,” and become more competitive across the country led to the unanimous vote to carry the motion to join SARA.

Champ Mitchell of the Committee of Strategic Directions presented the possibility of introducing competency tests to the UNC System to make sure “students graduate better prepared for the work force.”

The tests would be designed by faculty, business leaders and employers and will also award credit to students with prior military and corporate training.

A large portion of the remainder of the meeting discussed the arrival of Margaret Spellings.

Chairman Bissette noted that “[She] will be ready to go on March 1.”

Spellings has made plans to visit every UNC System campus between March and May.

Finally, the Board celebrated the appointment of Roger Aiken as Vice Chairman and the election of Thomas Conway Jr. as the new Chancellor for Elizabeth City State University.

The next UNC Board of Governors meeting, and the first with Margaret Spellings in attendance, will be March 4 at Fayetteville State University.