Student Activism

After the Faculty Council cancelled the student dance, approximately 400 students lit a bonfire on campus and marched to the home of Dean of Students E. L. Cloyd, carrying signs that compared him to Hitler and Mussolini. The students then marched to the NC Capitol, where they burned an effigy of Cloyd.

The student body gathered in Thompson Gymnasium to protest proposed tuition fee increases. The increases were $85 to $125 for North Carolina residents and $180 to $225 for out-of-state students.

Student government passed a resolution calling for racial integration of public facilities in Raleigh and formed the Human Relations Committee to write letters to area merchants. This movement was followed by a similar resolution from Faculty Senate.

Governor Sanford was booed after an NC State-Wake Forest basketball game in Reynolds Coliseum by students protesting the possible name change of the college from North Carolina State College to the University of North Carolina at Raleigh.

A group of NC State students joined with students from Shaw University to protest racial segregation policies in effect at the State Theater on Salisbury Street.

When Raleigh landlords refused to rent to African American students, student leaders formed Direct Action for Racial Equality (DARE) to advocate for equal housing opportunities for African American students.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Reynolds Coliseum to a crowd of over 5,000 individuals as well as a television audience of WUNC-TV. At the same time as the event, Klu Klux Klan members marched in violent protest in downtown Raleigh. Despite this, King continued with his speech.

A group of students held a rally to support better wages and working conditions for physical plant workers on campus. The protest was organized by the Society of Afro-American Culture and an offshoot of Students for a Democratic Society known as "The Group."

Four African American women were fired from custodial positions in all-male dormitories. Sixteen employees then held a sit-in at the chancellor's office and protested the action. The protestors demanded improvements in pay and working conditions and were arrested for refusing to leave. That evening, African American students and employees marched to the Chancellor's Residence protesting these actions. The following day, janitorial and housekeeping services in residence halls were canceled.

Students protested the draft and US involvement in the Vietnam war outside of the Armed Forces Induction Center. One student was charged with damaging property after smearing a bag of human blood on the center’s steps and walls.

NC State students held a convocation on the Brickyard in the aftermath of U.S. expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia, and the death of four Kent State University students in Ohio. The following day, nearly 6,000 students from NC State and other colleges protested by marching on the State Capitol.

A group of students donated over 3,000 books to Raleigh Central Prison. The drive was organized to collect books to provide prisoners with study materials for high school equivalency tests.

Over 1,000 students marched down Hillsborough Street from campus to the State Capitol to protest the Vietnam War. The students staged a rally on the capitol steps in response to the U.S. bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong in North Vietnam.

Student body presidents from NC State, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC-Greensboro published a joint statement urging the impeachment of President Nixon. The statement included 12 reasons why the proceedings should begin.

In 1974, African American students called for a new cultural center. Student body president Terry Carroll presented a four-point request to Chancellor Caldwell, which included a request for the first floor of the Print Shop to be turned over to the Society of Afro-American Culture for an African American Cultural Center. Banks C. Talley, dean of Student Affairs, complied with this request.

Gay and lesbian students at NC State celebrated National Gay Blue Jeans Day. Signs in the Free Expression Tunnel advertising the event were defaced.

Iranian students protested the execution of 50 people by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The students asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing their rights in Iran.

Students held a rally to demand better access for people with disabilities on campus. The students requested signatures on a petition to “reinstate funding for the removal of barriers.”

Student Government organized a march to protest NC State's financial involvement in South Africa. The anti-apartheid march began outside the African American Cultural Center and ended at the Memorial Tower. Approximately 75 students participated in the march.

Greeks United sponsored the March Against Racism-Challenging History (M.A.R.C.H.) to support change in the university's policies towards African American students. During the protest, students marched to the chancellor's office in Holladay Hall to present a petition that demanded immediate action. NC State's first African American student body president, Kevin Howell (1987-1988), participated in the M.A.R.C.H.

A "Handicapped Awareness Day Rally" was held by the “Student Organization for the Differently-Abled (SODA).” SODA set up booths at the rally so that people could “experience” different disabilities.

NC State's first annual "Take Back the Night" march and rally was held to protest violence against women.

Student government, the “Student Organization for the Differently-Abled” (SODA), and the Student Handicapped Services Office collected signatures at the Free Expression Tunnel during a “Barrier Free Campus” rally. The students held the rally to gain support for barrier removal on campus, including the addition of an accessible tunnel and curb cuts.

A photographer from Playboy magazine visited campus to recruit NC State students as models for the April 1990 edition. Students from the Women’s Resource Coalition organized a demonstration outside of his hotel to protest Playboy's presence on campus.

Around 600 students, faculty, and staff participated in an all night study-in at Hill Library to protest budget cuts made by the NC General Assembly that affected library hours and student resources.

Several student groups organized an anti-hate rally in Harris Field in response to recent rapes on campus, sexual harassment in classrooms, racist remarks from professors, and anti-gay messages in the Free Expression Tunnel.

The "Speak Out for Women's Concerns" forum was a campus event organized to address women's rights issues for students, faculty, and staff.

Taiwanese students at NC State held a protest and sit-in demonstration in response to sociopolitical events involving Taiwan, China, and the United States.

NC State students and faculty marched from the Brickyard to the Governor's Mansion to protest a proposed road through Carl Alwin Schenck Memorial Forest.

A crowd of approximately 500 students and faculty members rallied in Witherspoon in support of Affirmative Action. Students opposed UNC system President Molly Broad's proposal to eliminate race-based programs within the UNC system.

The Technician reported that members of the Native American Student Association and American Indian Science and Engineering Society presented Chancellor Marye Anne Fox with a proclamation celebrating November Indian Heritage Month. Governor Mike Easley signed the proclamation.

In March of 2002, the Board of Governors passed an 8% raise in tuition. The tuition in fall of 2002 was $2,814 compared with $2,328 the previous year. Students protested the March 6th Board of Governors meeting.

Students upset by budget cuts reducing library hours staged an all night read-in at Hill library and marched to Chancellor Marye Anne Fox’s house. Chancellor Fox spoke to the students from her porch and assured them that restoring library hours was a priority for the new budget.

Students from NC State and other Raleigh colleges took a bus to Washington DC to protest the US entering into a war with Iraq.

African American students participated in a sit-in at a Student Senate meeting to express concern for the lack of funding for African American organizations. Out of $40,000 of appropriations, African American organizations received a mere $755. The Student Senate agreed to send the bill back to committee for re-evaluation.

In the summer of 2010, student Saul Flores walked 5,000 miles across ten countries from Ecuador to Charlotte, NC, to bring awareness of Latin American issues. During this trip, he took over 20,000 photographs, and he donated sales from the images for the rebuilding of a school in his mother’s hometown of Atencingo, Mexico. The photographs were exhibited by the Libraries as the "Walk of the Immigrants." Flores graduated from NC State in 2012 with degrees in graphic design and business marketing.

Racist messages were painted in the tunnel. When they were discovered, students protested against the offensive messages by blocking the tunnel's entrance. Chancellor Woodson released a statement that declared, "We must create an environment and an overall sense of global awareness on campus that encourages and embraces all forms of diversity."

The first "Respect the Pack" event was held at the Free Expression Tunnel and became an annual event to promote diversity and inclusion on campus.

NC State students participated in a multi-day protest by “Occupy Raleigh” outside of the NC Capitol. Student speakers at the event criticized US economic and social policy and called for reforms.

“Occupy NCSU” organized two buses to transport students to a Washington DC protest against the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. They joined thousands at demonstrations in Lafayette Park and near the White House.

The first "Slut Walk" on campus was held in the summer of 2012. The walk, a movement first started in Canada, promoted an end to blaming victims of sexual abuse.

Students and alumni marched from the Bell Tower to the capital district to protest an upcoming amendment to North Carolina's constitution, which proposed legally banning gay marriage in the state. The event was called "Ides of March."

NC State students and faculty marched from the Memorial Belltower through downtown Raleigh to protest a proposed $125 million budget cut to the UNC System.

In the Brickyard, students and other environmental activists protested against the planned sale of Hoffman Forest. Later, some students marched to the NC Attorney General’s office.

Students protested the Mike Brown verdict in Ferguson, MO, at the Free Expression Tunnel along with Blackout protests nationwide. On December 1st, students held a "Walkout" protest and marched from the Court of North Carolina to the Brickyard.

Three hundred students held a Blackout protesting African American lives lost in police shootings in Charlotte, NC, and Tulsa, OK. The protest began in Wolf Plaza and moved into Talley Student Center, where students performed a die-in. On October 1st, seventy students protested at Carter-Finley Stadium during a football game.

NC State students participated in the Women's March on Raleigh in solidarity with the Women's March on Washington, D.C. The march addressed issues such as reproductive rights, immigrant rights, and sexual assault.

In response to a US government decision to end the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy, NC State students organized a protest in downtown Raleigh.

Several NC State students spoke at a demonstration against three monuments dedicated to Confederate soldiers on NC Capitol Grounds.

The Nubian Message published a special edition on the Black Lives Matter Movement. Topics of discussion included organizing protests and concerns regarding police violence against African Americans.

After the murder of George Floyd, NC State students participated in a demonstration in front of the NC Capitol Building to protest police violence against African Americans.