UNC Chancellor Snubs UNC Students Protesting COVID-Prevention Protocols

UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz reneged on his agreement to attend a meeting with UNC students who were seeking his administration to do more to protect them from COVID-19.

 According to Inside Higher Ed, an email from Guskiewicz to student leaders, “the UNC chancellor wrote that he thought the meeting was ‘with a small group of student leaders’ and wasn’t aware it would be open to the public. ‘What you described in your email yesterday is now very different from what you originally invited us to participate in with student leaders,’ Guskiewicz wrote in the email. ‘As a result, we will not be attending your meeting today.’”

Lamar Richards, the undergraduate student body president, replied to Guskiewicz’s snub: “Today I think I came up with a different definition of what leadership means … It means showing up,” Richards said. “I say that as I look at the empty seats where administration should be listening to the students, our most central stakeholders at this university.”