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Three colleges and universities in Elizabeth City, N.C., are limiting operations due to ongoing protests in the city over the April 21 police killing of a Black man, Andrew Brown Jr. Protesters have been marching in the city since last week.
Elizabeth City State University, a historically Black university, moved its classes online for the remainder of the spring semester, which ends Friday. The university also closed residence halls Tuesday. The university’s spring commencement is scheduled for May 8, but a Tuesday post on the university's Facebook page said tickets to the event “will not be distributed at this time.”
Robert Kelly-Gross, media relations director for the university, said in an email that plans for commencement have not yet been announced.
“I can’t help but feel grief at what we’re going through right now,” Karrie Dixon, the university's chancellor, said in a statement Wednesday. “But I have never been more proud of this community, or our community. The peaceful raising of voices, the firm call for justice, the insistence that the institutions of society must work on behalf of all citizens -- those are the actions of a great city, a great people.”
Mid-Atlantic Christian University, a small institution with about 200 students located blocks away from the protests, canceled classes Monday and Tuesday and moved to remote learning for the remainder of this week, which is the final week of classes. Students were required to move out of residence halls by Tuesday.
President John Maurice said in an interview that while the protests have been peaceful, local officials warned the leaders of institutions in the city of social media “chatter” about “outside influencers coming into the community.” The university does not have a police force and a main street of the city runs through campus, Maurice said.
College of the Albemarle, a local community college, also shifted to remote operations through Friday.
“Moving to a remote learning schedule helped to keep our commuting students off the road,” said Jenna Hatfield, a public information officer for the college, in an email.
