Letter: ​BOG is not willing to work with students

TO THE EDITOR:

I am writing to respond to the statement made by Board of Governors member Marty Kotis to The Daily Tar Heel, regarding the arrests of students at the board meeting on Tuesday. Mr. Kotis stated that the students who attended the meeting “have not reached out to (the board) since the December meeting and did not work to establish a dialogue,” and were therefore not justified in resorting to non-violent civil disobedience as a protest tactic. This is false, and Mr. Kotis knows so.

Last week, the board traveled to N.C. A&T to hold their meetings, and on Thursday afternoon planned to tour the campus.

As the bus with the board members pulled up to campus, a group of student activists were waiting for them, hoping to engage these board members on the issues affecting their campus.

Especially considering the fact that no current board member attended any Historically Black Colleges and Universities, these students deserve the opportunity to speak directly with board members about the issues affecting their campus, and the board should be actively seeking out these students’ voices and giving them the respect they deserve.

Yet the board members, rather than get off the bus to speak with these students, decided to back the bus out of the parking lot and send police to confront these demonstrators in their stead.

Some individual on that bus, or the board as a collective, made the decision not to engage with students who deserve basic respect from their administrators.

This is not dissimilar from the multiple times I have been at board meetings and seen board members all but run away from me as I attempt to approach them in between committee meetings to discuss a topic. To blame students for this lack of dialogue is outrageous when board members are not-so-subtly expressing their contempt for a student’s presence.

That brings me to my second point. Mr. Kotis, it is your job to establish communication with students, not the other way around.

Margaret Spellings loves to call us “customers,” as she sees students as fundamental components of her corporate educational structure. Maybe Spellings and the board would pay more attention if we used such phrases as “customer service” and reminded them that “the customer is always right.” Both in business and public education (which we should note are two distinct things) the governing body has the obligation to lead by complying with the demands its constituents.

For administrators to willfully ignore the demands of Black students shows not only that they are derelict in their duties but also that they are actively perpetuating the institutionalized racism that pervades our university system.

Our Board of Governors members should be holding public forums when they visit our campuses, not attending Board of Trustee meetings in secret or holding banquets only for a select few students.

Fear of having conversations with students, staff and faculty can only be logically explained by assuming that the board knows that they are actively behaving in a manner that is unacceptable to the public, and they know that they can only accomplish their agenda out of the public eye.

Yes, our actions on Tuesday were a publicity stunt.

But we chose that route because we know publicity is that which the board fears the most.

Shannon Brien

Senior

History and Asian studies