In a letter to the Chapel Hill community, Carol L. Folt, the chancellor, said the controversial statue known as Silent Sam should not be at the “front door” of the U. of North Carolina campus.
Updated (8/31/3018, 8:43 p.m.) with reaction from the chairman of the Board of Governors.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill should move Silent Sam, the controversial Confederate statue toppled by protesters this month, to a different spot on the campus, said Carol L. Folt, the university’s chancellor, in a written statement on Friday.
This week the UNC system’s Board of Governors gave the Chapel Hill campus’s Board of Trustees a November 15 deadline to present a proposal for the future of Silent Sam, which is currently in storage. The Board of Governors would have the authority to make the final decision about the restoration of Silent Sam. Many on the campus were concerned that the statue could be returned to a spot at the campus entrance that it had occupied since 1913.
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In a letter to the Chapel Hill community, Carol L. Folt, the chancellor, said the controversial statue known as Silent Sam should not be at the “front door” of the U. of North Carolina campus.
Updated (8/31/3018, 8:43 p.m.) with reaction from the chairman of the Board of Governors.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill should move Silent Sam, the controversial Confederate statue toppled by protesters this month, to a different spot on the campus, said Carol L. Folt, the university’s chancellor, in a written statement on Friday.
This week the UNC system’s Board of Governors gave the Chapel Hill campus’s Board of Trustees a November 15 deadline to present a proposal for the future of Silent Sam, which is currently in storage. The Board of Governors would have the authority to make the final decision about the restoration of Silent Sam. Many on the campus were concerned that the statue could be returned to a spot at the campus entrance that it had occupied since 1913.
Last week a member of the Board of Governors said that a state law requires Silent Sam to be restored within 90 days of its removal. Folt did not say if she agreed with that interpretation of the state law.
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“Silent Sam has a place in our history and on our campus where its history can be taught, but not at the front door of a safe, welcoming, proudly public research university,” Folt wrote.
But Harry Smith, chairman of the Board of Governors, said Folt’s statement was premature.
“I was very disappointed in Chancellor Folt’s hasty release with such strong statements on her opinion on the relocation,” Smith told The News & Observer. “The Board of Governors worked very hard to ensure we follow proper governance and oversight, and allowed UNC-Chapel Hill to have plenty of time to develop a meaningful, thoughtful plan. Chancellor Folt has subjugated that with such a quick release with her strong views and opinions.”
Silent Sam, a statue of a Confederate soldier, dominated the main entrance of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for more than a century, despite decades of protests. But suddenly, in August 2018, the statue was yanked down by protesters. And in January 2019 the campus’s chancellor, Carol L. Folt, removed the statue’s pedestal and other remnants. Here’s how Silent Sam moved from dominance to disappearance.
Smith said he hoped the trustees would step in with Folt “and put it back into a good process that seeks different views and opinions, that is a measured, thoughtful, meaningful process, which is what the Board of Governors had requested.”
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Folt’s message also didn’t meet with approval among some students. Samee Siddiqui, a Ph.D. student in the history department, said he and other activists don’t think the huge statue, which depicts a Confederate soldier, belongs on the campus at all. Siddiqui said he worries that it will draw white supremacists to the university.
“We don’t want his martyred body on campus,” he said. “It will still be a reflection of white supremacy, just moved to a slightly different location.”
But Maggie Horzempa, chairwoman of Chapel Hill’s College Republicans chapter, said the university would have a difficult time finding another place on the campus for Silent Sam. She would like to see it back on its pedestal in McCorkle Place.
“That was where it was unlawfully removed,” she said. “It should not have been taken down in the first place.”
Fernanda is newsletter product manager at The Chronicle. She is the voice behind Chronicle newsletters like the Weekly Briefing, Five Weeks to a Better Semester, and more. She also writes about what Chronicle readers are thinking. Send her an email at fernanda@chronicle.com.
Vimal Patel, a reporter at The New York Times, previously covered student life, social mobility, and other topics for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
