to send to the board of trustees. Chuck Stone, syndicated columnist and journalism professor at UNC, noted that ""Hardin has changed his stance significantly," but student groups were still annoyed that Hardin had not spoken to them directly. In response to these complaints Hardin agreed on Wednesday to be present for negotiations. Intervention of Spike Lee On Friday, September 18, Spike Lee, filmmaker and spokesperson for black causes, spoke in support of the movement to an audience of 7000 students, about three fourths of whom were black, at UNC's Dean Smith Center. The rally began with chants of "What do you want? BCC! When do you want it? Now!" Lee, who is a cousin-by-marriage of the late Sonja Haynes Stone, for whom the center would be named, said that what most impressed him was "the fact that this movement is led by athletes", and most of his 10-minute speech discussed the power that black athletes have. Khalid Abdul Muhammad of the Nation of Islam was also present at the rally. Feeling alienated by the fierce rhetoric of "black power," many white students set out to collect petitions in favor of a multicultural center, which would better represent all minorities on campus. Formation of a panel On Wednesday, September 23, a thirteen-person panel was named "to find a home for UNC-CH's new Black Cultural Center." The panel included, among others, Doloris Jordan, mother of former UNC basketball player Michael Jordan, and Harvey Gantt, the first black mayor of Charlotte. Despite the efforts of Provost Richard McCormick and Chancellor Paul Hardin, the panel did not include any members from the student coalition that pressed for a freestanding center or members of the cultural center's advisory board, mostly students. According to McCormick, "any appropriate architectural forms and land sites will be considered in light of the programmatic plan that the working group develops." Students who supported the new center remained skeptical: Black Student Movement president, Michelle Thomas, asked "why start all over again? It's just another stall tactic." Panel supports a free-standing black cultural center On Monday, October 5, the panel formally supported a free-standing black cultural center with a 10-2 vote. After the decision, Richard "Stick" Williams resigned from the panel. Worried that the panel had too quickly made the difficult decision of whether to make the center free-standing, Williams said "We've made that decision quickly just so we could get the students to the table." The students, for their part, were waiting for a declaration of support from Chancellor Hardin. On Monday, October 12, more than 150 students marched to Memorial Hall to disrupt University Day, the day on which administrators and faculty in academic regalia celebrate the university's foundation. As the administrators and faculty filed in the students stood in silence holding signs that read "no more waiting," "no justice, no peace" and "Hardin's Plantation". As the ceremony was about to begin the students marched into the hall, singing "If you won't let us build a building, then put on your hoods and roll," to the applause of some in attendance. Hardin's support for a free-standing black cultural center Hardin issued a statement offering his support for a free-standing black cultural center on Thursday, October 15. Initially the students were suspicious of the Chancellor's language, which stated that he supported a "... free-standing facility to house the center ..." The activists thought that this might mean that the center would share a building with other programs, but a day later, after Provost McCormick personally clarified the ambiguity, the student activist leaders at last agreed to come to the table to