Chairman: UNC board to 'have conversation' on removing 'Silent Sam'

The University of North Carolina's Board of Governors will discuss the idea of removing a controversial Confederate monument from the system's flagship Chapel Hill campus, the new board chairman said Friday.

The "Silent Sam" statue has been the site of protests for the past year, with students, faculty and alumni calling it a racist image and begging for officials to remove it. A string of people repeated those arguments Friday to the Board of Governors.

"I sit here and look at a mostly white Board of Governors that paid $390,000 to protect a Confederate statue, and honestly, I’m disgusted," said a rising UNC-Chapel Hill senior who identified himself only as "Nico."

"My heart hurts that this symbol of white supremacy that stands for the fight to own another human being is standing tall in a place of prominence in a university that I love so much," said Nancy White, a Chapel Hill resident who attended the school and now has children there.

"I implore you to think about what message are we sending. What message do we want to send? What are we standing up for? What are we representing in this community?" asked Anna Richards, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the NAACP.

• 'A slap in the face:' UNC hears Confederate statue concerns
• 'It marks our history:' UNC community remains divided on Silent Sam

Chairman Harry Smith said he heard their concerns loud and clear.

"What I want to make sure is that we are not ignoring it, so that we’re just not having public comment sessions and then we’re moving on," Smith said after the board meeting.

Although the state Historical Commission has the final say on Silent Sam's future, Smith said he wants to talk with other board members about petitioning the commission to review the matter.

"We all have our views and opinions, but I do believe that, if we follow a healthy process, we’ll get to the right decision," he said. "I would expect that we will have the conversation with the board, because at the end of the day, we’ve got to hear everybody on the board."

Smith said he doesn't have an opinion on whether the monument should stay or go, saying he's in "listen mode and learning mode."

"We are very much aware that it is not in our discretion to move or remove the statue, and I think our job is to listen and learn and to represent the views of the students we serve to those who can make a decision," UNC President Margaret Spellings said.

UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt and school administrators are devising a plan for handling the issue when students return to campus next month, Spellings said.

"It’s costly to make sure that both students and property are kept safe," Spellings said. "What are the options ahead for this board or the legislature to consider about how to put that period in our history in the right kind of context and to move on from it in ways that we learn from it?"