The media group which owns the student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel filed a lawsuit against the University of North Carolina and the UNC System Board of Governors on Wednesday.

DTH Media Corporation filed the lawsuit, alleging the settlement between the Board of Governors and the pro-Confederate group the Sons of Confederate Veterans over a Confederate monument violated North Carolina’s open meeting laws. In it, the media company points to the negotiation and approval in secrecy by the board as grounds to null and void its settlement, which was made official in November.

Durham attorney Greg Doucette shared the official complaint in the lawsuit on his Twitter page.

After being toppled by protesters in 2018, university leadership debated over the future of the Confederate monument known as Silent Sam. UNC students, faculty and community members voiced their opposition for any return of the monument to campus, while others said it ought to be reinstalled to avoid violation of the state’s ‘objects of remembrance’ law.

On November 27, the Sons of Confederate Veterans sued the UNC System over not returning the monument to campus. The system reached a consent judgement the same day, creating a $2.5 million trust for the statue’s preservation and display and cedeing its possession to the pro-Confederate group. Court documents originally accessed by WRAL reporter Sarah Krueger, however, show UNC System Interim President Bill Roper signed the consent judgement for the settlement on November 26, with chair of the Board of Governors Randy Ramsey signing November 22.

According to a North Carolina statute, each official meeting of a public body should be open to the public and available for anyone to attend. The UNC System Board of Governors qualifies as a public body since it is appointed by elected officials. The statute also defines an official meeting as one made up of a majority of the members of a public body for the purpose of participating in deliberations or transacting the public business within its jurisdiction.

The settlement led to protests by UNC students and faculty in December, who said the decision supported the ideology of white supremacy. UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, who served in the interim role at the time, wrote a letter to the UNC System Board of Governors expressing concern the trust may be used to fund other actions by the Sons of Confederate Veterans not regarding the monument.

A civil rights group filed a lawsuit against the UNC System in December, alleging UNC students should be part of the original lawsuit in an effort to reject the settlement. The superior court judge ruled the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to enter into the case.

 

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