UNC Interim Chancellor Guskiewicz Sends Letter to UNC System, Voices Concerns over Silent Sam Settlement

After a more than a week of protests by the campus community against the UNC System’s decision to settle a lawsuit with a pro-Confederate group, UNC Interim Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz sent a letter to the system’s leadership outlining concerns over the decision.

Guskiewicz, who shared the letter in a message to the campus community on Wednesday evening, said he’d heard much criticism over the aspect of the settlement where the system created a $2.5 million trust fund for the Sons of Confederate Veterans for the preservation of the Confederate statue known as Silent Sam, which once stood on UNC’s campus. The interim chancellor voiced his own concerns about comments made by SCV leadership about how the funds would potentially be used to build the group a divisional headquarters and continue to oppose the removal of other Confederate monuments.

“I join with others on my campus in stating that the values expressed by the SCV are inconsistent with and antithetical to the values of the University,” Guskiewicz wrote. “In addition, I am deeply concerned by the comments from SCV regarding their intended use of funds from the charitable trust.”

Guskiewicz said the comments from the SCV caused led people to believe the university was funding the pro-Confederate group’s ideologies instead of creating an off-campus solution to Silent Sam’s future. He asked system leadership to give clarifying information on the settlement and ensure the fund would be used strictly for keeping the statue away from UNC.

“I urge the Board of Governors and the UNC System,” he wrote, “to take any appropriate steps that are available to ensure that the independent trustee administers the charitable trust in strict compliance with the court’s order and the terms of the trust. I also request that the Board and the UNC System consider providing additional information to our University community about this matter.”

The full letter to the UNC System Interim President Bill Roper and Board of Governors Chair Randy Ramsey can be found here.

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