Students moving into UNC-Chapel Hill dormitories were “welcomed” by armed campus cops Monday to the opposition of campus activists, who say the police force has a history of assaulting protesters on campus. As of Tuesday, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz hadn’t responded to a request from the students to remove the guards.

On Friday, UNC Police tweeted photos of a campus cop standing in front of a residence hall, his taser and handcuffs visible. The photo caption stated the officer was there “to listen, to help w/ directions, to answer questions or help you find answers, & to help make this visit to #UNC safe, healthy & enjoyable.” 

Activists on campus disagree. Campus police have brutalized students on several occasions, particularly surrounding Silent Sam, the university’s former Confederate participation trophy. Police used pepper spray, hit protesters, and reportedly targeted and monitored antiracist protestors during the events that took place surrounding the monument’s toppling. Bodycam footage of officers asking to punch protesters and praising the neo-Confederate group ACTBAC was released in November, days after an assessment of police response in the protests was released by Guskiewicz.

Activists request that UNC police be removed completely from back to campus events, and for them to maintain a minimal presence on campus in the upcoming year. They also demand an ad hoc committee be created to voice student concerns to Guskiewicz, and that this committee be part of every decision made involving students.

The letter is signed by student body president Reeves Moseley, Black Student Movement president Tamiya Troy, and other campus leaders.

This is the second letter the group of students has sent to administration. Guskiewicz sent his original response to Residence Hall Association President Kira Griffith Sunday night, an hour after the students’ requested deadline saying he believed there was a “misunderstanding of the role” officers played in welcoming students back to campus. Officers have always been involved in move-in, he claimed, and asked for specific instances where these officers were “creating problems.”

After this response, Guskiewicz and chief of staff Amy Hertel met with Griffith to discuss the demands. They said that they would reduce the officers’ assignments to dorms and around campus, keeping their duties to directing traffic. The Daily Tar Heel says this is the job they have done in previous years.

The same day, the department’s Twitter posted a statement from Chief David Perry, saying that they “are aware that @UNCPolice has acted regrettably in the past.”

“We have made great strides as a department since my arrival at #UNC one year ago,” Perry said in the statement. “But we are still not perfect—we still make mistakes—and we also know that rebuilding trust is hard and it often takes time…”

Students also expressed distrust for police chief, who was hired a year after Silent Sam’s toppling. During a December protest, students brought up an incident where Perry visited a Black Student Movement event specifically for Black men to discuss campus events. There, they said the police chief talked over a student that criticized campus police and defended the former police chief, as well as the police force’s actions against students from before he was there.

The student leaders have demanded a response to the second letter by 5 p.m. Tuesday, and say they “will stand for nothing less than” their demands being met in full. As previously stated, there has been no response.

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