Two individuals with ties to UNC – Chapel Hill have been named among the 2018 Chronicle of Higher Education Influencers.

The higher education publication compiles the annual list to highlight those who “shaped higher ed, for better or worse.”

UNC history graduate student Maya Little has been a constant figure over the last year as students, faculty and community members have protested the Confederate monument known as Silent Sam on the Chapel Hill campus.

The chronicle called the debate over Silent Sam among the most “divisive” on college campuses across the country.

Little was charged with defacing a public monument this spring when she poured a mixture of what she said was her own blood and red ink on the statue. She was found guilty in October, but the judge continued her punishment, meaning she faced no further sanctions.

Protesters pulled the monument down from its pedestal in August. When the campus Board of Trustees approved of a plan to relocate the statue to a new $5 million facility on campus that would allow for teaching and exhibit space, Little was among protesters who took to the campus to voice opposition to the proposal.

Little was charged with two misdemeanors in connection to that rally. Those charges are making their way through the Orange County court system.

The plan approved by the campus board was ultimately voted down by the UNC System board. A new proposal is due by mid-March. Campus administrators have maintained they would prefer the monument be moved off-campus but say a 2015 law prevents them from doing so.

UNC alumnus and now Princeton history professor Kevin Kruse was also included among the chronicle’s influencers. Kruse has seen his Twitter following balloon over the last year as he has taken to social media to correct the record where he sees mistakes on topics including political party realignment over civil rights, supreme court nominees and other instances at the intersection of race and politics.

UNC was also represented on the 2017 chronicle influencer list through the law firm that represented the university in the long-running, paper-class scandal. That investigation resulted in the NCAA not delivering any penalties to UNC.

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