UNC's Campus Safety Commission Dissolves After 2-Year Run

Internal conflict between UNC campus leadership and the university’s Campus Safety Commission has led the advisory group to dissolve.

A UNC spokesperson confirmed this news to 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com on Wednesday.

A letter sent to UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz from commission members in August announced the group’s dissolvement. The letter, initially obtained by The Daily Tar Heel, stated that the Campus Safety Commission could “no longer continue in this work” under current circumstances.

Six members of the safety commission cited the university’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nikole Hannah-Jones controversy, and the removal of UNC Police Chief David Perry as main determinants for the group’s dissolvement.

“We have played virtually no role in the most significant threat to campus safety in a generation: university response to the COVID pandemic,” the letter read. “We have been completely uninvolved in decisions to remove the chief from the UNC Police Department, though our initial creation specified ‘building relations with campus police’ in the very first sentence of the letter you sent asking us to join the commission. We stand by as we witness an accelerating stampede of faculty and staff of color decide that Carolina is not a hospitable place for them to pursue their talents and they move on to greener pastures.”

Pace Sagester, a spokesperson for UNC, said the chancellor’s office has spoken to the commission chairs and looks forward to meeting with them later this month “to determine the best path forward.”

“The chancellor has valued the input of the Campus Safety Commission and its commitment to supporting a safe campus environment for our employees, faculty and students,” said Sagester.

In the August letter to campus leadership; however, commission members stated they did not wish to reinstate the advisory group.

“Our work is impossible so we ask you to bring it to an end, and spend your efforts getting those who have the power to take the actions needed to restore campus trust to do so,” the letter read. “Therefore, and for all the reasons laid out above, we ask you not to reappoint the Campus Safety Commission, whose term expired on June 30, 2021, and not to reestablish it in another form.”

The Campus Safety Commission was established by Chancellor Guskiewicz in April 2019 with the mission of assessing the campus climate and culture around campus safety.

According to the university, the commission was created to address a “crisis of trust” between members of the campus community and the campus police – largely associated with events surrounding protests and events related to the removal of the Silent Sam Confederate Memorial.

“The time has come to stop talking and to take action, not study and recommendations, if we really want to earn back the trust of members of the community who feel betrayed, marginalized, and unwelcomed,” the letter addressed to Guskiewicz reads. “You may or may not have the power to take those actions. But we can’t do our work until those actions occur.”

Read the Campus Safety Commission’s full letter to campus leadership here.

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UNC’s Campus Safety Commission Dissolves After 2-Year Run

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