The UNC Wilmington Board of Trustees met Oct. 24 and 25 for the first time this academic year and the meetings ending in a heated discussion over the homegrown student representation law passed this summer by Gov. Pat McCrory.

Audit and business affairs committee member Michael Drummond and external affairs committee member Dennis Burgard were in back and forth debate over the integration of the new law with UNCW associate general counsel John Scherer.

Scherer accused Drummond of being “inappropriate” when Drummond suggested the board turn to members of the audience who he identified as being part of the efforts to write legislation for the law.

“This is not a court system. This is not criminal court. It is not civil court. This is not trials by jury, this is a different system and it has been around for a long time,” Scherer said.

“Being around a long time doesn’t make it right,” Drummond said as he interrupted Scherer.

The student representation law, a section of House Bill 74 that is also referred to as the SAE Act, initially resulted from the action of UNCW’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity when they were suspended from campus for a period of two years for “drinking related charges.”

Ian Gove, the fraternity’s president at the time, thought the hearing held for his fraternity didn’t give them an adequate chance to defend themselves before being sentenced. In response, he approached UNCW alumnus, NC Rep. John Bell, to see what sort of legislative options the fraternity had.

“We thought we were given an unfair verdict and since we weren’t allowed any sort of representation we wanted to see what we could do about making sure other students were given that chance,” Gove said. “Since Bell was a SAE alumnus who we knew, we thought that would be a good place to start.”

Gove, who was at the Board of Trustees meeting, also wrote an open letter to the North Carolina General Assembly describing his and his fraternity members’ anger at the mistreatment they felt they were given due to not being able to have proper representation.

As a result, Bell sponsored the section of HB 74, allowing students representation at campus disciplinary hearings where administration members were present.

The open portion of the meeting closed with board of trustees chair Wendy Murphy acknowledging the emotional quality of the new law.

“It is a new law, it’s an emotional topic and it’s important. I care about students and certainly as a parent, want them to learn a lesson. Sometimes it takes some children longer to learn a lesson, but I do want it to be fair and consistent,” Murphy said. “And at the same time, I do want—I don’t know the right way to say this—they need to be allowed to be the adult that they’re not quite yet but they’ve got to get there.”

The meeting then closed to give board members time to discuss the law further in a private session.