A meeting between Chancellor Jimmy Cheek and the student coalition UT Diversity Matters was cancelled Friday evening due to an apparent miscommunication between student organizers and UT administration. Students gathered in Thompson Boling Arena for the scheduled meeting only to be greeted by Diversity Chancellor Rickey Hall and Chancellor for Student Life Vincent Carrilli who explained that an email had been sent out changing the location to Fred Brown Hall. Student organizers, including SEAT member Elizabeth Stanfield, expressed frustration with the administration’s lack of communication.

“We’ve been preparing for days for this meeting,” Stanfield said. “Maybe the administration will only meet with us when it’s on their terms … This seems to me to be an indication of the larger problems that we’ve been talking about and despite the fact that I’ve multiple times heard Chancellor Cheek say he is willing to do anything to make transparency (happen).”

After Hall explained that Chancellor Cheek would not be in attendance due to the mix-up in location, the student organizers opted to stage a sit-in protest outside Chancellor Cheek’s office in Andy Holt Tower, saying that would not leave without either talking with the chancellor or confirming a new meeting time over the phone.

“I do believe there was an honest mix-up,” Hall explained, addressing students’ concerns that it had been a deliberate choice not to send emails indicating a location change. “I’m going to own that one, and I’m promising that we will reschedule. I know the Chancellor was really looking forward to it.”

Once students had settled in on the fifth floor outside Cheek’s office, they agreed to reschedule the meeting for next Thursday at 5 p.m. The location of the meeting will be announced at a later date. Read the full story in Monday’s edition of The Daily Beacon.