Free Speech and Consequences
Those in power don't really like speech they don't like
A story about UNC Chapel Hill senior Laura Saveedra Forero losing her Morehead-Cain Scholarship due to a series of free speech/protest incidents (including arrests resulting in a plea deal in addition to campus processes) that the scholarship Trustees felt did not uphold the standards of the program.
Forero is a self-described activist who shared her intent of direct action against injustice when warranted in her interview process, she says. However, the Trustees of the program determined that her behavior was not consistent with the program’s values and her award was not renewed for her last year of college. The Morehead-Cain Trustees said this to the Daily Tar Heel in response.
“A student’s scholarship will be terminated upon conduct that is, in the sole judgment of the trustees, incompatible with the standards of the Morehead-Cain Program,” the statement said. “Such conduct may include violations of the Foundation’s nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policy, provisions of the University Honor Code, state or federal law, as well as any behavior that causes the trustees to question a scholar’s personal integrity or fitness to represent the Morehead-Cain community.”
Forero professes not to know exactly what conduct lead to her scholarship being terminated, but the policy statement from the Board of Trustees clearly provides them with the widest latitude to do as they wish. She says that she is not sure what changed and that is 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.”
When a broken elevator at her residence hall left her 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 was elected Campus Y co-president and organized a sit-in on the South Building steps to pressure the administration into addressing its lack of accessible infrastructure.
This is what the Morehead-Cain scholarship released about her when announcing her selection as a scholar in 2021.
Laura Maria Saavedra Forero (Laura) will graduate this spring from Charlotte Country Day School in Charlotte, North Carolina. Laura is the co-founder and CEO of By Immigrant Hands, a clothing company whose mission is to empower immigrants while giving back to the community through their sales. She is also the co-coordinator of Extinction Rebellion Youth Charlotte and a national action coordinator for Extinction Rebellion Youth U.S., a movement that strives to combat climate injustice. In addition, Laura is the founder and director of Aprende Jugando, a summer camp for underprivileged Latinx kids, and she is developing a student-run diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consulting firm for predominantly white institutions. At her school, she is the president of the Hispanic and/or Latinx Alliance, a member of the Diversity Executive Board, and involved in the International Studies Board. Laura plans to double major in neuroscience and public policy on the pre-med track in the hope of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. Laura is the daughter of Liliana Forero and Oscar Saavedra of Charlotte, North Carolina.
I think she has a point.
Forero says that the tenor of her relationship with the scholarship changed in 2023 when the Republican Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, UNC alum Tim Moore, came to speak to the scholars and she and several others protested against some of his policies. I am sure that was received like a skunk at a party, but it is easy to be for free speech when folks say what you like. Several thoughts on this:
The Morehead-Cain Scholarship Trustees are well within their rights to do this, and the fact that they renew the scholarship each semester shows that they take the conduct of students seriously. I am an alum of UNC Chapel Hill (3 times) and the Morehead-Cain is most decidedly the powerful, good and the great on campus for a long time.
Forero says the fact that she uses a wheelchair for mobility meant that she has been singled out for more punishment because of how recognizable her presence is at protests, given that some students and fellow scholars according to her hid their identity. I think this aspect of the story bothers me the most.
Given the precipitating event seems to have been due to a protest of a key Republican leader (and UNC alum’s visit), combined with the steady Republican expansion of influence on UNC Chapel Hill and a noisy debate about same, this could be understood as the powerful silencing dissent. The story in the Daily Tar Heel sources several Morehead-Cain scholars who provided information about Forero being singled out and saying they did not want to be named due to fear of reprisal.
Finally, this story highlights a crucial point that freedom of speech does not necessarily mean freedom from negative consequences.