Students welcome new chancellor with campus protest

OXFORD, Miss. (WCBI) – Monday was the first day on the job for the University of Mississippi’s new Chancellor, Glen Boyce.

However, instead of a warm welcome, he was met with a chilly reception by a large group of students.

Students handed a letter to the chancellor’s office demanding that the Boyce resign effective immediately.

“This was apart of an escalation plan,” said Cam Calisch, one of the dozens of protesters. “Our motion today was to show Glen Boyce that we are a coalition of people who are angry, and that we are not standing up for what they are doing, and that we are active.”

The group of students, faculty, and Oxford residents organized by the Abolish Institution of Higher Learning Coalition crowded into the Lyceum to make demands of the IHL.

“I would say that we came out today as Glen Boyce’s first day to say that we’re not happy, to take a stand, to stay active, and I think we established that,” said Calisch.

Other students like Junior Jack Oaks who works at the Lycuem thinks otherwise.

“It personally scares me that I just work there and I have nothing to do with anything at all,” said Oaks. “I was just sitting in there doing my job just doing some homework too, and was just hanging out drinking a cup of coffee and then all of a sudden they are just in the office screaming and yelling and stuff.”

While in the Lyceum, protesters gave a list of demands that include the immediate removal of Boyce, and to reopen the search for a new chancellor.

Callsich said it’s a growing movement.

“We are framing this as a social movement because we are directly challenging the open opinion of our state government,” Calisch expressed.

Groups across campus have released official statements disapproving of the Institution of Higher Learning’s process of choosing Boyce as the 18th chancellor.

This marks the second time students have held a protest since the university named Boyce as its new chancellor.