****UPDATE: The system Board of Governors met in closed session on Tuesday discussing the future of the Confederate monument known as Silent Sam on the UNC – Chapel Hill campus. The board passed a resolution calling on UNC – Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt and the campus Board of Trustees to “develop and present to the Board of Governors a plan for the monument’s disposition and preservation, which should be presented to the Board of Governors by November 15, 2018.”

BOG chair Harry Smith issued a statement after Tuesday’s vote. Smith said that the board would “conduct an external after action assessment and review of UNC-Chapel Hill’s preparation for and response to the August 20 protest.”****

The governing boards from UNC – Chapel Hill and the UNC System are meeting in separate special sessions on Tuesday, a week after the Confederate monument known as Silent Sam was pulled down on the Chapel Hill campus.

“Of course, this has been a week of very intense emotions,” UNC – Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt said at the beginning of Tuesday’s Board of Trustees meeting. Folt said those emotions ranged from the excitement of a new semester starting, “which is always one of the greatest times that happens at the university,” to “the intense, the emotion, the pain, the frustration, anger that’s being felt and expressed right now.”

The statue has been a flashpoint of protests for decades. Last Monday, a rally began across Franklin Street from the monument at Peace and Justice Plaza. Protesters then carried large banners across the street and formed a wall around Silent Sam. After roughly two hours, protesters used a rope to pull the monument down from its pedestal.

“We know that the monument has been divisive for a long time,” Folt said Tuesday morning, “but what happened on Monday was wrong. It was absolutely not the solution that we wanted.”

Folt has maintained that she would prefer the statue be moved to a secure location where it can be contextualized. But the chancellor has said a 2015 law passed by the Republican-led General Assembly limiting the movement of “objects of remembrance” does not allow her to take that unilateral action.

There have been 11 arrests since Monday night’s rally. One individual was arrested Monday night before the monument was pulled down. Charges were later filed against three other individuals. Seven arrests were then made at a rally on Saturday where opposing groups took to McCorkle Place, where the monument’s pedestal remains.

Folt said investigations in both rallies are ongoing.

“And the actions that are appropriate will be taken,” she said.

One member of the UNC System Board of Governors, Thom Goolsby, has publicly called for the monument to be repaired and reinstalled. Folt said after Saturday’s rally that the university “won’t be rushed” into a decision on the statue’s future.

Folt said Tuesday morning the priority is to “find a lawful and lasting path that will protect the public, protect the monument and allow us to return to what we are doing right now: our core mission of education, research and creating the next generation of leaders.”

Finding that solution will take review, Folt said, while the eyes of the nation are on North Carolina.

“It’s going to take reflection, compassion and empathy to solve the problem and provide the nation with an example on how to move forward,” the chancellor said. “I am actually confident that North Carolina and its leaders are up to that challenge.”

The campus Board of Trustees quickly moved into closed session at Tuesday’s meeting. The agenda said the board would receive a legal update on the situation, reports concerning investigations of alleged criminal misconduct and discussion of potential action plans to protect public safety.

This post will be updated with additional information as it develops.

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