WS Chronicle

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP)  — Chanting, “Whose university? Our university!” students at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill took over a town hall meeting on race relations at the school.

A group of protesters on Thursday night read a long list of demands, including that the school fire newly hired president Margaret Spellings, multiple news media outlets report.

The protesters also called for the elimination of tuition and an end to using the SAT as part of the admissions process. They also pushed for no outsourcing of campus jobs and no investments in prisons.

Sophomore Madrid Danner-Smith said racial equity training should be mandatory for every student, professor, administrator and staff member.

“We all agree on one thing,” Danner-Smith said. “Systemic racism exists.”

Several students called for the removal of Silent Sam, the Confederate monument on campus. A history task force has embarked on plans to place markers on McCorkle Place, where Silent Sam is located, to give full context to it and other memorials.

The meeting came a week after a large rally in support of the University of Missouri, where a mass protest was held earlier this semester.

The Chapel Hill event was heavily attended by faculty and staff, who were asked to be there by Chancellor Carol Folt.

After the forum, Folt made no specific promises, but said her administration is committed to improving the campus climate.

“You can’t have been listening to this without feeling the pain that people are feeling,” she said. “I hear it loud and clear that people want action.”