Last year, even as a freshman new to campus and unaware of what it was like to be a student at Carolina, I could tell that the 2014-2015 academic year stood out amongst previous years.
Race was a huge and continuous topic on campus — reflecting national news. When students, mainly minorities, banned together in solidarity for those experiencing tragedy in Ferguson, I saw horrific backlash on social media sites such as Yik Yak.
When three students were killed over what was deemed a parking dispute and later called a hate crime, I recognized the severity of discrimination Muslim students at Carolina face on and off campus.
When the UNC Board of Governors decided to shut down the UNC Center for Poverty, Work and Opportunity, I gathered that our leaders, who supposedly have the community’s best interest in heart, only seem to care about a certain class of people.
The examples listed above only highlight a few of the misfortunes that occurred at Carolina last year. Thus, it may be difficult to see any positivity in a sea of negativity.
However, student activism and a united campus resulted from these destructive circumstances.
The students behind vigils, the Pit Die-In, and movements like Kick out the KKK were tireless in their efforts to encourage campus awareness and enact progressive change to ensure students of marginalized groups felt accepted, valuable and purposeful on their college campus. In fact, a group called The Real Silent Sam Coalition took on the difficult challenge to get Saunders Hall, named after a KKK leader, renamed to Hurston Hall. The group even created a Manifesto to present to the Board of Trustees outlining their demands.
After the tragic deaths of Deah, Yusor, and Razan, thousands of students and community members from UNC-Chapel Hill and surrounding campuses gathered in the Pit for a candle-lit vigil to celebrate their lives. This was one of the first times I saw a diverse group of people come together to reflect on injustice, but also commemorate exceptional students who truly cared about changing the world.
When the Board of Governors met at UNC-Charlotte to vote on the UNC Center for Poverty, Work and Opportunity, many students from UNC-CH attended the meeting in protest. This revealed true student activism since they nearly shut down the meeting. So, it is obvious that work still remains for social justice efforts at UNC-CH and around the world. Nonetheless, it seems that the passion and sense of community embedded in many students at UNC-CH will lead to years filled with more positivity, rather than the endless negativity that occurred in the 2014-2015 academic year.