CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. More than 100 students crammed into the University of Virginias Newcomb South Meeting Hall last month for a student council meeting that quickly devolved into volleys of shouts and anger.

David Birkenthal, chair of the representative body, banged his gavel repeatedly to restore order. The council was there to vote on whether to endorse a list of demands made by the schools Black Student Alliance. Among the student groups requests: recontextualize a campus statue of Thomas Jefferson by adding a plaque stating the monument serves as an emblem of white supremacy.

The BSA, founded in 1969 as an independent group representing African-American students and issues on campus, made its demands shortly after a white nationalist rally took place in Charlottesville, and amid growing concerns of racial inequality on campus.