They wore black and toted something strange — an urn in a distinct Mean Green shade. They placed the urn in an old-fashioned horse-drawn hearse.
A handful of University of North Texas students traveled from Denton and Houston to Fort Worth on Thursday morning.
Their aim? To protest what they called sweeping censorship and overimplementation of state laws that forbid training, programs or offices that promote racial and gender equality at public Texas universities.
They stood at the very back of the room where the UNT Board of Regents gathered for their regular meeting at UNT Health, the system's Cowtown campus. Even though most students are gone on summer break, the campus bustled with faculty and administrators.
The students silently held black signs: "May she rest in peace." "First they came for my school." "Mourning academic freedom." "Gone, but not forgotten."
Sumya Paruchuri, a UNT student who just finished her freshman year, is the development director of the student engagement group. In a press conference, Paruchuri said the university is experiencing a kind of death.
"We've organized this funeral today to mourn the death of UNT and academic freedom here at this institution," she said. "When manufactured budget cuts result in the elimination of gender and ethnic studies, academia dies. When the president has allowed UNT to become an example for political actors, academia dies. When professors are forced to overcomply with state regulations and university policies in fear of being prosecuted, academia dies.
"But we will not let it die quietly," Paruchuri said. "Students know what is happening, and it's not something we will let happen while sitting on our hands."
In the last month, students have staged mock funerals at the University of Texas and Texas Tech University to protest what they call censorship and suppression of campus activities.
Students from the UNT chapter of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, an advocacy group that trains students to promote the visibility of youth in policymaking, and the UNT chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America participated. They said the demonstration would have been much larger if the regents had met before graduation, when more students are on campus.
Mariela Nuñez-Janes, a UNT anthropology professor and the vice president of the UNT chapter of the American Association of University Professors and American Federation of Teachers, shared her remarks as a litany of grief and of grievance. She paid tribute to faculty, staff and students who have been "displaced, erased or forced out of UNT" by state laws passed since 2023.
"The secrecy and force of the changes are akin to the massive disappearances of immigrants that are happening in our streets," she said, "and to the history of forced disappearances of people around the world who are hunted and targeted for their knowledge and beliefs. They mostly happen out of the public eye."
Nuñez-Janes referred to reporting by the North Texas Daily that estimates that UNT eliminated or modified 187 activities, resources and undergraduate programs.
"They are swift. They're conducted under the guise of some lawful authority. And they are meant to disrupt and cause pain," she said.
Valarie Martinez-Ebers, who directs the university's Latina/o and Mexican American Studies Political Science Department, wept. She recalled coming to the university in the 1970s, and how UNT responded to Hispanic students' plea for Hispanic faculty.
Martinez-Ebers said the university's programs and resources for Hispanic students — and for all students — helped propel UNT into its federal designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution. She recalled a recruitment program, affectionately called the "Latino roadshow," which appealed to the state's growing Hispanic population.
"I have taught there for 27 years. I have 11 degrees from UNT among my family. I have always been proud of this university until the last two years. Now I am embarrassed to say I'm a UNT alum sometimes," she said.
Martinez-Ebers said she is close to retirement but grieves for the crackdown on free thinking and creativity at the university. She is worried that Hispanic high schoolers might pass up UNT.
She gave grace to UNT President Harrison Keller and instead holds the Board of Regents responsible for the overimplementation of state laws that could hurt the humanities programs the university has been known for.
"They're trying to make us Texas A&M," she said. "We don't have their resources."
Paruchuri said the university's policies have made learning feel dangerous.
"We're unable to learn in free and productive environments," she said. "Our classrooms feel monitored and censored, and our concerns feel as though they're falling on deaf ears. We will not allow this to continue to happen."
UNT juniors Iliana Del Toro and Katherine Perez, who represented the Democratic Socialist group, said the statehouse has cast a long shadow over students on the Denton campus.
"I think definitely a big thing that we've seen on our personal side, because we're both also students of color, is undocumented students and immigrant students," Del Toro said. "It's a really big way [that] we've see them being attacked, in really silent ways. And them being pushed out."
Perez said she heard students who celebrated "La Raza Graduation" express relief to be finished with their education at UNT. La Raza Graduation brings Hispanic students and families together to celebrate a milestone. Families placed graduation stoles on their children, and then celebrated and honored their children for having access to higher education.
"[Many people], if not every single person in there was commenting about how they're glad they graduated despite everything that's going against them," Perez said. "I mean, even just creating that La Raza Graduation in itself was a whole deal. And we felt a lot of pressure, a lot of pushback from the administration."
State law now forbids faculty and staff from using university resources to advance events regarding race. In the end, the celebration was organized and staged by students. Martinez-Ebers said doing so is harder now that the resources and staff in the banned multicultural center were eliminated by lawmakers.
LUCINDA BREEDING-GONZALES can be reached at 940-566-6877 and cbreeding@dentonrc.com.
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