Carolina Alumni Review - November/December 2009

Morehead-Cain Scholar Haley Koch was the only student arrested. Thorp, who has taken a somewhat harder line on protest than his predecessors — he would not drop charges against students who occupied South Building over sweatshop issues related to UNC-licensed products when James Moeser was chancellor — talked at length about his approach.

“I think we’ve done a good job of being really consistent with the principles we use to address these things when they happen. I didn’t drop the charges against the people who were arrested at the South Building sit-in when James was chancellor. I didn’t ask the DA to drop the charges against Haley — I’m not going to. I’ve gotten pressure to ask the DA to drop the charges against the people who were arrested the week after. I didn’t do that either.

“We have a policy that says if you sit in in South Building or any other administration building, then when the building closes you have to leave. That’s out there — there’s no question about what the policy is.” He acknowledged that the policy is his. “That way, if people sit in and they want to get

arrested, then it only takes them one day.

“But I think I’ve made up for that by engaging with the protesters much more directly. I talked to Haley; I had a meeting with the [South Building] students where they asked me for some changes to the way we evaluate our licenses, and I responded to that and was able to do it, and it was a very cordial and personable and civil meeting. I agreed to meet with Haley when she comes back to talk about what we can do in the future to help students who disagree with speakers have their disagreements voiced. I think there are some changes we could make there. Every time I’ve been in town that somebody’s marched to South Building and brought a letter, I’ve gone out and accepted it myself.

“If people talk to me ahead of time, I can really do a lot to help them get their message across and to keep the dialogue civil. That’s something that should be a hallmark of Carolina — that we can disagree and everybody get their point across.