3:24 p.m. UPDATE: UNC-Chapel Hill has tweeted that today’s vote from the Board of Governors gives the university more time to review relocation options for Silent Sam.

“An off-campus solution remains our strong preference and we will work until March 15 to more fully explore this option.”

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2:50 p.m. UPDATE: The UNC Board of Governors has announced that they will not support the recommendation to relocate Silent Sam to a $5.3 million facility on campus. A new committee will be formed to come up with a proposal by March 15.

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11:30 a.m. UPDATE: The full board meeting began at 11 a.m. before moving into closed session shortly before 11:30.

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After months of contentious debate, the UNC System Board of Governors is set to consider the future of the Confederate monument on the Chapel Hill campus known as Silent Sam on Friday, four months after protesters pulled the statue down from its pedestal on McCorkle Place.

The UNC – Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted last Monday to approve a recommendation to place the monument in a new $5 million facility that would allow space for teaching and exhibit space to tell the full history of the university.

That decision was met with immediate protests from the campus community that have persisted in various forms. A group of graduate students and teaching assistants say they are withholding final grades from the university as finals are underway on the campus. Multiple petitions are garnering signatures from different portions of the faculty and student population opposing bringing the monument back to the campus. At least one student has been wearing a noose around the university grounds as a call that the monument is out of place on the campus.

UNC – Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt and several members of the Board of Trustees said during last week’s presentation that they would prefer the statue be moved to an off-campus location. But the administration maintained that they are prevented from doing so by a 2015 law that prevents the movement of objects of remembrance.

Protests are expected at the UNC System Board of Governors meeting on Friday, where a decision could be made to approve of the recommendation from the campus Board of Trustees.

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