What began Thursday as a day of peaceful student protests within and outside the Board of Regents meeting at NIU ended in an explosive confrontation between students and university administrators.

A group of about 125 chanting students marched into the Regents meeting in the Holmes Student Center’s Regency Room at about 2:45 p.m., demanding from the Regents and NIU officials a reason for the controversial dismissal of CHANCE program counselor Martha Palmer.

One-and-a-half hours earlier, the Regents had suspended normal meeting procedures to allow two NIU students to speak out against a proposed $125-per semester tuition increase which was up for vote on the Regents’ agenda.

NIU Student Regent Nick Valadez said the Regents had “wanted to allow” students the opportunity to voice their opposition to the proposed tuition hikes. On the suggestion of Valadez “several days ago,” the board suspended the normal requirement of written permission, needed five days in advance of the meeting, for speaking at their meeting.

Valadez moved back and forth between the Regents and student protesters in the Martin Luther King Commons before the 1 p.m. meeting, attempting to negotiate a last-minute list of student speakers.

After Regents Chancellor Roderick Groves recommended the tuition increase, which would go into effect in January 1989, NIU Student Association Treasurer Diana Turowski stood to speak to the Regents. She said she opposed the Regents’ decision to pay ex-NIU president and current Professor Clyde Wingfield a salary of $85,000 to work for the next year with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington D.C. Turowski said this money could be more effectively used at NIU, such as in hiring new instructors. She informed the Regents she would present them with the signatures of 2,100 students, faculty and staff on petitions protesting the Wingfield decision.

Darnell Williams, SA acting academic affairs adviser, also spoke in opposition of the proposed tuition hike. As about 10 students quietly protested with signs, the Regents passed a tuition surcharge of $125 a semester, saying that a surcharge could be removed in the future.

Outside in the commons, students listened to speakers protesting the firing of Palmer, who was informed in June that her contract would not be renewed in December. Several student speakers, joined by Palmer, expressed their anger that CHANCE officials and NIU administrators had not given specific reasons for her dismissal.

Willie Fowler, NIU Residence Hall Association president, echoed the sentiments of many other students who said they admired Palmer’s hard work as a counselor: “If the university wants diversity, why fire the grandmother of diversity?”

Tomas Almazen of the NIU Latino Student Movement said, “We can only talk and write so much … but if things do not get done, then there should be action.”

Palmer told students they could organize with signs to protest outside the Regents’ meeting if that was their intention. The crowd then moved into the student center.

Chanting “Regents, Regents, don’t be blue. K.K.K. is racist too,” the group entered the Regency room and disrupted the Regents’ meeting. They demanded that questions regarding Palmer’s dismissal be answered by the Regents.

NIU Judicial Office Director Larry Bolles and Jon Dalton, vice president for student affairs, attempted to quiet the protesters by negotiating talks between students and administrators. After a short recess by the Regents, regular procedures again were suspended so that four protesters could speak.

NIU President John LaTourette answered students’ questions about Palmer’s dismissal by saying the decision was a personnel matter and Palmer could seek a redress through the normal NIU appeals process, which would involve a specially-selected panel. “Then Ms. Palmer’s situation can be examined through a group of her peers,” he said.

Regents Chairman Carol Burns also indicated that Palmer could take advantage of the internal appeals process.

The Regents resumed their meeting and quickly finished their work amidst protesters’ jeers. Regent Sylvia Nichols said after the meeting she thought the protesters’ tactics of interruption were “not appropriate because the subject (of Palmer’s dismissal) has not yet come before the board.”

Valadez said the board was “well aware” of the fact that student protests could be part of their meeting at NIU. “As campus student bodies go, NIU’s is … a little bit more active,” he said.