The Lyceum was a maze of administrators on Tuesday night. What was intended to be an open event where members of the university community could meet senior leadership shifted — at least in some parts of the event — to another demonstration by student group Abolish IHL protesting the appointment of Chancellor Glenn Boyce.
In one room, campus recreation workers set up corn hole and a prize wheel. In another, a representative from Starship controlled one of the food delivery robots with a PlayStation 4 controller and handed out coupons for free delivery. In Boyce’s office, more than a dozen protesters lined the walls — all with strips of red duct tape covering their mouths. Through a speaker, they played audio of local business owner Campbell McCool predicting Boyce’s appointment during the chancellor selection committee’s alumni listening session nearly two months before it was decided.
During that listening session, McCool said he had heard rumors that at the end of the search process, no candidates were going to come to the forefront, and the Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) Board of Trustees would offer the job to a “former consultant to the board who was not an applicant.”
Paige Sims, a junior psychology major and protester, said the point of the Abolish IHL protest was to remind campus of its titular goal and to send a message to Boyce.
“Students and workers have the executive authority to move the statue (and) run the school,” added another protester and UM graduate, Emrys Gill.
The protesters handed out copies of Boyce’s statement from Jan. 16 regarding the IHL decision to remove the vote to relocate the Confederate monument from its January meeting agenda. One sentence was highlighted: “Our governing body – the IHL board – has exclusive authority to relocate the statue.”
Boyce left his office for a few minutes shortly after the protesters arrived and then returned with a staff escort. When asked to share some of the thoughts he heard from other students, Boyce declined to comment. However, before the protesters arrived, he said he was glad to be meeting students and giving them the chance to meet administration.
“It gives students the opportunity to know that this is a very open and receptive building for them, and I was excited to know that I would meet more students,” Boyce said. “I love the community effect of it. Just seeing everyone coming in and excited, you can’t replace that.”
Boyce also said that he plans to institute an “open door” policy in the near future, to give students a designated time each week to talk to him without normal constraints.
“I plan on having a time where I’m just open for students to visit and get the word out there. Like, I sit in the student union a while and just visit with everybody. Maybe I’ll have lunch in some room and say, ‘Hey, let’s talk,’” Boyce said.
Protesters left the building just before the hour-and-a-half event ended. Tape removed from their mouths, they chanted, “Glenn Boyce: not our choice” as they left the building.
Joshua Mannery, a junior English and political science major, conceived the idea for the Open Doors early in the fall semester. He shared it with Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Community Engagement Katrina Caldwell, and they quickly started planning and bringing in volunteers from staff groups across campus.
Caldwell said that the Lyceum can seem cold or off limits to students, but she hopes that events like this will help remove those barriers.
Aside from the protesters, there were no other signs of resistance from over 100 other students that attended. Feedback ranged from indifferent to appreciative. Others were reluctant to give their honest thoughts.
When asked if there were any concerns he would like to bring up with administrators, senior journalism major Akim Powell started to speak about campus diversity and then stopped.
“You know what? We’re not gonna go there,” Powell said.
Sophomore political science major Makayla Cowan attended in part because she had never seen the inside of the Lyceum. After leaving the first room on the list, Provost Wilkin’s office, she said she felt like his remarks and those from other administrators seemed scripted.
“It’s not anything bad. It’s just what you expect to come out of the provost’s mouth. I like Provost Wilkin though. I know this is just a job,” Cowan said.
Other students took the opportunity to ask for advice about their educational paths or about the thought behind university strategies for diversity or development. One student asked for Wilkin’s opinion about continuing her education in pharmacy, and the provost offered his card and an invitation to meet in person to talk about her situation in more detail.
Mannery, the student who came up with the event, said he thinks it is too easy for students to view administrators as a faceless entity. Both he and Wilkin said that events like this can remove the divide between administrators and students.
“It’s important for students to see us as human. So many times, we’re talking to each other through statements, through newspaper articles or through other things, but really getting to know each other as people is what this is about, and that begins with looking face to face and having conversations with each other,” Wilkin said.
Mason Scioneaux and Daniel Payne contributed reporting to this story.
