Don't waste trustees' time: The way Thursday's protest of budget cuts went down was useless

No ifs or buts about it — the cantankerous demonstration that interrupted the Thursday Board of Trustees meeting was ineffective and utterly misguided.

About 45 students faculty members and University employees disrupted the Board of Trustees' meeting at the Carolina Inn to protest budget cuts and a lack of transparency.

They had a point. The administration and trustees should be transparent.

But that point was lost in their juvenile demonstration.

The coalition marched in unscheduled took over the podium and read a list of demands which included a request to layoff administrators rather than workers.

To make matters worse the group wasn't even demonstrating in front of the correct body.

The N.C. General Assembly controls how much funding UNC-system schools receive (this year how much to cut) — not the Board of Trustees.

Bird-brained protests like these give University administrators no incentive to increase transparency about future cuts and layoffs.

If more open discussions between the University community and the Board of Trustees are to occur then groups need to approach administrators in a more level-headed and proactive fashion.

Student Body President J.J. Raynor is meant to be the students' voice on the board and she was just as surprised as the other trustees at the raucous interruption.

Thursday's protests provide a great example of how not to promote an agenda of transparency.

Disrupting meetings and dishing out demands doesn't turn administrators on.

Radical demonstrations aren't a great way to encourage administrators to seek input from student groups and employees.

It is also a good idea to be knowledgeable about what you are protesting.

And the student body's voice becomes muffled when radical uninformed protests inhibit discussion.

If greater transparency is to take place administrators need to be given a reason to believe that more open proceedings will not spark more imprudent reactions similar to the circus that took place last Thursday.