CHAPEL HILL — A group of college students is protesting the committee planning the future of North Carolina's public university system.

The student activists said they plan to deliver a letter Tuesday with demands for change to chancellors of the state's 17 University of North Carolina campuses. The students are upset that the panel developing a five-year plan setting priorities and what will happen to academic programs is heavily represented by conservatives who now control the General Assembly and budget purse-strings.

The panel includes the Republicans who lead the state House and Senate, the head of the state's chamber of commerce, and Art Pope, the retail-store magnate who has been a top funder of conservative causes and candidates.

The panel also includes five university chancellors and the community college system's president.