UNC Board of Governors Rejects Silent Sam Proposal

It’s back to the drawing board to figure out a plan for the future of the Confederate monument on the UNC – Chapel Hill campus known as Silent Sam.

The UNC System Board of Governors on Friday rejected a proposal brought forward by UNC – Chapel Hill to build a new $5 million facility that would house the monument and include teaching and exhibit space to tell the full history of the university.

Protesters pulled the monument down in August from the pedestal on McCorkle Place where it stood for more than 100 years.

“The goal here is to simply get it right,” UNC Board of Governors chair Harry Smith said after Friday’s vote.

The Board of Governors designated five members – Darrell Allison, Jim Holmes, Wendy Murphy, Anna Nelson and Bob Rucho – to work with the campus to develop a new plan for the future of the monument and report back to the full board by March 15, 2019.

UNC – Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt and several members of the campus Board of Trustees said when bringing forward a plan that their preference would be that the statue be moved to an off-campus location. But they have maintained that a 2015 law limiting the movement of objects of remembrance prevents them from making that recommendation.

Smith agreed on Friday that moving the statue off-campus would require a change to the state law, but he said the group now working to develop a new plan could pursue that option.

“The group will have to decide if that’s, indeed, a path that they want to go down,” Smith said. “And if that’s so, then they will make the decision whether to engage with lawmakers in Raleigh and have the conversation and see if they can get traction on that.”

Folt said the campus was grateful for an extension to develop a new proposal.

“The plan we put forward did meet the letter of the charge from the Board of Governors but hasn’t satisfied anyone, and we recognize that,” Folt said in a conference call with reporters after Friday’s vote.

Folt added that the university was in a unique situation being the only campus in the UNC System “has anything closely resembling this statue. Put here more than one hundred years ago, our community is carrying the burden of an artifact, given to us by a previous generation in a different time.”

And carrying that burden, Folt said, was not evenly distributed across the campus community.

“The burden of the statue has been and still is disproportionately shouldered by African Americans,” the chancellor said. “No university today would even consider placing such an artifact on their campuses.”

Smith, UNC System President Margaret Spellings and campus officials met with students and staff on the campus Thursday to discuss the future of the monument. Smith praised the group and the discussion that was had, adding that he “learned a lot.”

“When you hear the students speak about fear and safety and concern, it’s pretty real,” Smith said. “There’s so much sensationalism on this. But when you get to hear students actually speak from their own hearts, it’ll make you draw pause.”

Folt said the impact of hearing these stories first-hand has an influence on those making decisions.

“We included thousands and thousands of resolutions and emails in the report,” she said. “But that is not the same as sitting face-to-face with someone who’s telling you what it feels like.”

The chancellor added they would continue to review options, including ways to move the statue off the university campus.

Smith said the cost of the project was also a concern and that “we would have never approved public funds for the building.”

UNC Board of Governors Requests New Silent Sam Proposal

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