UNC faculty committee holds emergency meeting following protests

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) — The UNC Chapel Hill Faulty Executive Committee held an emergency meeting Wednesday in response to the protests and the events that followed Tuesday.

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In that meeting, the committee discussed ways to help the campus move forward. Faculty Chair Beth Moracco said they will be reaching out to administrators with questions, including how to accommodate students who might not want to be on campus right now.

Moracco said the campus has experienced a collective trauma.

“These are momentous events on our campus. They affect our community. We would like to discuss what is the best way forward,” Moracco said.

The committee wants to share resources available to students and staff to help them deal with what happened. Faculty want to know what resources are available for the ten students the university said police arrested.

“We see in the Q&A that a grad student has been banned from campus for two years,” said committee member Claudia Yaghoobi. “Protecting our students is our first job.”

Yaghoobi said a Duke professor and a UNC student were injured Tuesday. CBS 17 reached out to the university for more information about injuries. CBS 17 also asked several other questions, including how many students received disciplinary action, and is waiting to hear back.

They also want more information on Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts decision making Tuesday. They said university leaders should’ve communicated better as events unfolded.

“A complete lack of discourse yesterday, complete breakdown of communication,” Yaghoobi said.

Moracco said dozens of faculty members sent her messages asking for the committee to take a side on the protests and things that followed, something they are not doing.

“It’s clear that we as faculty are not of one mind,” Moracco said.

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