The Faculty Council of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill condemned the decision of the UNC system to give the Silent Sam statue to a Confederate memorial group for placement off campus. The decision is causing debate at Chapel Hill because the system is paying the Confederate group $2.5 million.
Kevin M. Guskiewicz, the interim chancellor at Chapel Hill, sent a message to the campus in which he said, "I know many of you oppose the payment to the charitable trust and object to the [Confederate group] displaying the monument anywhere. I understand, appreciate and empathize with those sentiments. The settlement ensures the monument will never return to campus, but issues of racism and injustice persist, and the university must confront them. I now want to focus on our shared values of diversity, equity and inclusion, and I will continue to reject and condemn those individuals or groups who seek to divide us. We have a lot of work to do to thoroughly address and reconcile with our past."
