UNC students collect 700 signatures in petition for banned law student to attend graduation

A group of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students delivered a petition Thursday with more than 700 signatures calling for a banned law school student to attend May’s graduation.

The students want the university to let Jamie Marsicano attend the May 10 graduation for the UNC School of Law. The graduation ceremony will be at Carmichael Arena.

Last year, former Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz banned Marsicano from campus. Officers arrested Marsicano while protesting a controversial police training complex outside Atlanta.

The students who signed the petition believe the university took the consequences too far.

"If a school is able to say, 'Hey, we don't like that you're protesting this therefore, you are banned from campus,' it's going to mean others won’t speak up for what they believe in,” student Megan Rankins said.