UNC-Chapel Hill Punishes a Scholarship Student (and Certifiable Pain in the Ass) -- But It's a Free Speech Scandal

 

Laura Saavedra Forero, a UNC senior, a neuroscience major, and until very recently, part of the prestigious Morehead-Cain Scholarship program, was told on Jan. 6 (a date that already lives in infamy), that the Morehead-Cain Trustees had decided to terminate her scholarship.

Oh she was an activist, you bet! Her interview with the Daily Tar Heel is hair-raising if you're set in your ways:

In her application [for the Morehead-Cain], Saavedra Forero said she wrote about her activism, citing her work surrounding climate justice, the Black Lives Matter movement and for the Latino community in her area. She said in her interviews she talked openly about her use of “nonviolent direct action," her chosen form of protest method.

“I never hid who I was or what I did,” she said. “I always made it very clear, throughout my entire college application process, that if a program or a university did not want me for who I was at my core, and that is someone who organizes for the community, then I did not want to be there.”

But what really pissed off her superiors, all of whom are now either terrified of the partisanship of their governing boards or totally agreeable with suppressing dissent -- the activism that doomed her scholarship were her very loud protests of Israel's campaign against the Palestinians of Gaza, because evidently people like Virginia Foxx and her fellow travelers take a huge leap in equating any criticism of the Israeli government -- which has been a dick -- to "anti-semitism." I reject that.

But she started out as an advocate for handicapped access on campus:

When a broken elevator at her residence hall left Saavedra Forero [who depends on a wheelchair] stuck in her dorm room for 32 hours, she mobilized press and campus activists to start a years-long campaign calling for more accessibility at the University.

She subsequently crossed the apparent "redline" for the increasingly politicized bosses above her -- they are justifiably terrified of what the General Assembly might do next to hurt higher education -- when she organized a noisy protest of a appearance on campus of NC House Speaker Tim Moore, because of his meddling in university governance.

A Morehead-Cain scholarship official named Chris Bradford confronted Saavedra Forero over a graphic she had posted on her Instagram account, indicting Starbucks' pro-Israeli connections -- a bloody depiction of Palestinians being fed into a coffee grinder. That earned her a vague threat about her behavior, that it was under scrutiny. Saavedra Forero wasn't deterred, even though genocide in Gaza ... very verboten. She organized a protest with Starbucks Workers United outside of the Carolina Inn on Oct. 12, 2023. Bradford wrote her another email: “I am very clear that you have a right to free speech, and I do not believe that anyone has a right to not be offended,” he wrote in his email. “But I am equally clear that this scholarship is a privilege, and that the behavior of scholars should be a model for the behavior of others on campus.” Free speech as long as the new political correctness isn't offended.

To cap it all off, she participated very publicly in the UNC pro-Palestine "encampment" on the UNC campus, the event where Chancellor Lee Roberts marched in so theactrically to restore the American flag. Saavedra Ferero got trapped in her wheelchair under a toppled barricade. A week later, she attended an event near South Building organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, and participated in the march that attempted to block Provost Chris Clemens’ car from exiting the parking lot. A few days later, Saavedra Forero was informed that she was charged with “impeding traffic” and “resisting a public officer.” She said she was the only participant charged with impeding traffic. She was also referred to the UNC Honor Court and the Emergency Evaluation and Action Committee for her conduct. 

An alumnus of the Morehead-Cain Scholarship program told the Daily Tar Heel:

“I think there was a moment in time where Laura's boldness went from inspiring to threatening the Foundation,” they said. “And their only understanding of how to react was to assert dominance in this relationship, which is to remind Laura that she is being paid ... by the Foundation.”

The Daily Tar Heel details more. Bottomline: UNC-Chapel Hill is becoming a major university that I used to have respect for.