December 11, 2019
To the UNC Board of Governors, Interim System President Roper, UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, Interim Chancellor Guskiewicz, and Provost Blouin:
The faculty of the Department of Political Science at UNC- Chapel Hill condemns, in the strongest terms, the decision by the Board of Governors to transfer $2.5 million to the Sons of Confederate Veterans to preserve the monument known as Silent Sam. The decision to compensate this group, with its false and demeaning interpretation of history, betrays the trust placed in the University and contradicts its core values and mission to pursue truth and knowledge.
We call upon the leadership of the University of North Carolina to take appropriate action to rescind this settlement and to endeavor to repair the harm that the above settlement has caused to our community.