RALEIGH (February 5, 2025) – After raucous demonstrations by pro-Palestinian protesters last spring at UNC-Chapel Hill and, to a lesser extent, other UNC System campuses, System officials are moving to clarify the rules for student protests.

The UNC Board of Governors is scheduled to vote on a new policy when it meets Feb. 27.

When board member Swadesh Chatterjee asked during a committee meeting last week whether the idea was to adopt a uniform policy for all UNC System campuses, General Counsel Andrew Tripp said it’s quite the contrary – the policy aims to preserve the discretion of each campus chancellor based on the unique conditions on their campus, he said.

The policy notes that university officials must balance campus safety with free expression.

“Such balancing must inherently be campus-based and does not lend itself to hard and fast ‘one-size-fits-all’ prescriptions at a System-wide level,” it says.

But the proposed policy makes a number of clarifications:

• Each campus must prohibit camping on University property without prior written approval. The definition of “camping” includes sleeping in, on or under(!) vehicles. (Clearly the definition of camping does not apply to Krzyzewskiville at Duke.)

• Protesters cannot block access or egress from campus buildings.

• After worries about “outside agitators” in the demonstrations last April turned out to mostly involve students from nearby campuses, the policy makes clear that a UNC System student who violates the conduct policy at a different campus can be disciplined at their own campus.

• And it expressly allows campus law-enforcement agencies to share information with other campus police departments.¹

IN THE ACCOMPANYING video from an interview last fall, UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts says the U.S. Supreme Court and the university have been trying to define the precise outlines of the First Amendment for roughly 240 years.

“That continues to be a work in progress,” Roberts says. “We have a long, noble tradition of campus protests, of students participating in the world around them, of engagement in the issues of the day. We not only support that, we encourage it.”

“We have some very simple, I think easy to follow, time, place and manner restrictions,” Roberts says.

“You can’t turn the quad into your private campground. Hang out on the quad all you want, but you can’t camp on the quad. Please don’t vandalize our historic buildings. You can’t threaten, harass or intimidate your fellow students or anybody else.

“And I think most students understand those rules and understand the need for them,” he says.

ALEX MITCHELL, Chair of the Board of Governors’ Governance Committee, told the committee that the proposed policy sets a baseline for campus protests.

“It’s a requirement. But it’s not the only requirement,” Mitchell said. “It’s a minimum.”

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1 https://www.northcarolina.edu/apps/bog/doc.php?id=68301&code=bog, Item A-6, .pdf pp. 21-23.