UNC-CH Blasts Back After Agitators Demand Faculty Participate in Amnesty Scheme for Suspended Protesters

The pro-Hamas encampment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) campus, which was the scene of the iconic "frat dudes save the American flag" moment, led to arrests and suspensions of some protesters. In turn, some pretty insane demands are being made by the now-disbanded encampment's "leaders" - and some faculty/staff members.

The UNC "Justice for Palestine" student group, which has been suspended from the campus, is calling on professors and their teaching assistants to actually withhold grades until the administration caves to demands for amnesty for the handful of protesters who were suspended during last week's protests.

Relatedly, sympathetic faculty members and staff held a press conference Monday afternoon to announce they were getting ready to hand deliver a petition that demanded full amnesty for the protesters:

...more than 700 professors state that they are calling “for accountability for the administrators whose decisions during the protest dishonored the university’s noble traditions of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and respecting students’ rights to protest.”
[...]
In a separate action, UNC SJP is seeking to use withheld grades to pressure administrators to reverse student discipline. The group said in a news release that instructors are “withholding grades and demanding the UNC-CH administration grant all protesters amnesty.” The move is reminiscent of similar actions nearly six years ago as the university dealt with the controversy surrounding Silent Sam, the Confederate monument that previously stood on campus and for years was the subject of on-campus protests and outcry.

But just to show you that this stunt actually has nothing to do with freedom of speech and right to protest, note the faculty members who were proudly holding "Justice for Palestine" signs during the press conference:

.@UNC faculty plan to deliver a petition to UNC admin to demand amnesty for students who were suspended after last week’s pro-Palestinian protests. Faculty say several students have been banned from campus for up to two years. Over 750 people have signed the petition. pic.twitter.com/N7NlphymIZ
— Brianna Atkinson (@batkinson2501) May 6, 2024

Faculty are on their way to South Building: pic.twitter.com/Yb8AdvLZHu
— Brianna Atkinson (@batkinson2501) May 6, 2024

Now we all know that in the event a pro-Israel speaker was invited to speak on campus, these same faculty members would - on free speech grounds - take the same stance and be totally against any student-led movement to get the speaker's event canceled, right? Sure.

In one unconfirmed report from Wilmington, NC talk show host Nick Craig, at least one UNC-CH professor has agreed to the call to suspend the release of grades:

BREAKING: A professor at UNC Chapel Hill is apparently going to withhold grades from students if the administration does not unsuspend students who were part of protests last week #ncpol #ncga pic.twitter.com/AdeBA3qca8
— Nick Craig (@nicholasmcraig) May 6, 2024

In response to the concerns expressed by students over the alleged threats to withhold grades, UNC-CH leaders blasted back and said they would fully support sanctions against any faculty member who did this:

In their Monday email to deans and department chairs, Provost Chris Clemens and UNC Graduate School Dean Beth Mayer-Davis said the provost’s office “will support sanctions for any instructor who is found to have improperly withheld grades, but is our hope we can resolve this matter amicably and without harm to students.”
“We strongly support the right of faculty and graduate students to express their opinions freely but there are better ways to do this than hurting our students and abrogating our contract with the people of North Carolina who support our university,” Clemens and Mayer-Davis wrote.

Previously, UNC-CH interim Chancellor Lee Roberts took a bold stand last Tuesday by personally marching to the campus flag pole and re-raising the American flag, which had been taken down and replaced with the Palestinian one by the demonstrators:

HERO: Interim UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts personally restored the American flag at UNC:

(Credit: @dailytarheel) https://t.co/nB0oVSjycx pic.twitter.com/lohD0VCckc
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) April 30, 2024

Roberts later said in an interview that the American "flag will stay there as long as I am chancellor.”

Will the school pull a Columbia and allow the lunatics to control the asylum? We'll keep you posted on developments as they happen. As always, stay tuned.