The progressive student organization UM Solidarity had a closed-door meeting on Sunday to discuss plans to move forward after protesting the Institution of Higher Learning’s new hire of Glenn Boyce as the University of Mississippi’s 18th chancellor.
Cam Calisch, co-president of UM Solidarity, said that during UM Solidarity’s meeting, the student organization was working on getting more people on campus aware of the controversy.
“The logistics that are still a little bit hush-hush, but we’re going to focus specifically on disseminating information so we get more people involved,” Calisch said.
Calisch also said that she thinks that the IHL’s process of hiring Boyce was a very corrupt process and considers it to be an abuse of power.
“(The IHL) is using this power in a very authoritarian way,” Calisch said.
Boyce said he believed the process had students at the center of the conversation.
This meeting follows UM Solidarity and Students Against Social Injustice (SASI) working together to protest IHL’s selection of Boyce. Students, faculty and alumni alike met in the Grove Friday morning to make signs, then gathered at The Inn at Ole Miss before IHL’s press conference to protest their selection of Boyce.
Upon the ballroom reaching full capacity, the fire marshal closed the doors. Protestors demanded the doors be opened so people outside the room would be able to hear the announcement.
Calisch, a senior anthropology major and organizer, was forcibly removed from the ballroom by the University Police Department for requesting that the doors stay open. No charges were pressed against Calisch.
UPD Chief Ray Hawkins canceled the press conference because there were “people in attendance who choose not to be civil.”
Despite the press conference on Friday being canceled because of protestors disrupting the event, Calisch thinks that it was a success.
“I think we got our message across,” Calisch said. “I think that the IHL is very foolish for continuing to appoint Glenn Boyce.”
