UNC-Chapel Hill is our nation’s oldest public university and among its finest. The UNC System is the state’s most important asset. Strong, accomplished leaders have helped UNC be a catalyst for growth that has made a positive impact in every corner of our state. Today, however, the University faces challenges created by the very people charged with governing it. Tuesday’s actions against Chancellor Carol Folt have left us unable to stay silent any longer.
Contemplating how to accommodate the complex history of UNC has been at the forefront of many discussions during the past decade, particularly since 2015 when the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted to change the name of Saunders Hall to Carolina Hall and contextualize the campus monuments. No one enters those decisions lightly. Thousands of hours were spent trying to find the best way to move forward, especially in light of growing hostilities — on many sides — around the presence of Silent Sam. This was made almost impossible, however, by the hastily passed legislation which prohibited moving the statue. Two exceptions were provided by that legislation and Chancellor Folt invoked one Monday when she ordered the removal of the remnants of Silent Sam from McCorkle Place to stop the violence that had occurred and would continue to occur as long as it stood at the front door of Chapel Hill’s campus. It is within any university chancellor’s authority to protect the safety of the students, faculty, staff and visitors on campus.
Since arriving at Chapel Hill, Carol Folt has stood strong for the University. We are much better for the work she has done. However, during her tenure, increasing pressure from Raleigh and the Board of Governors has put politics ahead of the best interests of education, research and patient care. Silent Sam came to embody it all.
Tuesday, Chancellor Folt paid the price for her leadership and North Carolina lost another great opportunity to resurrect its history as a progressive part of this nation. Instead of allowing Chancellor Folt to leave office on her terms — at the end of this academic year — the Board of Governors held an emergency session and forced her to resign in two weeks. It is the same protocol the Board exercised when President Margaret Spellings resigned. The Board could not be satisfied to let them leave on their own terms.
We stand together in our support of Chancellor Folt. Regardless of one’s view on Silent Sam, the Confederate monument had become a lightning rod for violence and intolerance on this campus and had to be removed. We realize taking it down quickly was controversial. It is our hope that we will not have to continue fighting the Civil War by trying to resurrect it elsewhere on campus.
UNC has been a beacon for progress in North Carolina over the past 225 years. At this nation’s beginnings, the leaders of our state understood the value of educating its citizens and chartered a university with access for all. Now, it is our collective responsibility to govern for the common good, rather than based on individual political preferences.
We are proud of Folt’s leadership in making Carolina a better place and, in doing so, making North Carolina better. We ask now that those charged with governing UNC put aside divisiveness so we can implement our shared, core mission for the people of this state.
Signed by: Tim Burnett, Phil Clay, Don Curtis, John Ellison, Paul Fulton, Peter Grauer, Wade Hargrove, Johnny Harris, Barbara Hyde, Jean Kitchin, Kel Landis, Roger Perry, Tom Lambeth, Steve Lerner, Phil Phillips, Sallie Shuping Russell, Nelson Schwab, John Townsend, Richard “Stick” Williams and Bob Winston.
Dr. E. Mary Carlson says
Well said! I acknowledge that the issue of Confederate monuments is complex and different constituencies must be listened to as the University navigates the way forward. Chancellor Folt provided steady, discerning leadership. I’m dismayed that the Board is afraid to make bold decisions that reflect what UNC represents.
Richard Griggs says
Well stated! I am a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate (1974) and I have always supported the revered history of the Confederate veteran . However, Chancellor Folt handled the recent situation with an admirable astuteness that is starkly unrecognizable among the present Board of Governors. The racial and intolerant climate which exists today in this country due mainly to the reactionary Republican forces which are controlling the political ground in this country has helped to contribute to the divisions emerging in this state and in the country at large. We need people to emerge of the caliber of Erskine Bpwles and William Friday.
Ann H. Deupree says
Thank you, past members of the UNC BOG. At last we have wise words from responsible leaders. I hope your voices will continue to speak out to save this public university from the whims of those in power seeking to proliferate divisive practices.
Karl Burkhalter says
Teaching students how to think is priority one. Teaching them what to think is brainwashing. UNC has become a propaganda arm of the Radical Left. NC did not secede to protect Slavery anymore than Union invaded to end slavery. Twisting the facts to forward current political agenda is Orwellian and UNC has become an Orwellian nightmare!
Kit Marley says
Yeah no, just no.
C. Marley says
“[Our new government’s] foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man,” “That slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.” 1861 Alexander Stephens future Vice President of the Confederate States. Nice try at correcting history, but this is a stated goal.
Brian B says
Unfortunately you have missed the point of this entire discussion.
Peter Quinn says
B.S. from start to finish.
Diane Corbin says
Name calling is not a strategy, it is bullying. Please give a considerate statement of how your opinion differs so that we may all be informed.
John Blust says
Tearing down a monument in the dead of night in contravention of law is not bullying?
Mary Etta Moretz says
Beautifully and bravely stated.
Like many North Carolinians, I descend from Confederate soldiers and from slave holders. On their behalves, I repent. While I love history and all of its accouterments, I believe it is wrong, it is cruel to rub salt into the wounds of our African American brothers and sisters, who did so much to build this nation, by displaying any of said accouterments. The flags, the statues, the other memorabilia belong in museums as warnings of the past to the generations of the future, and not out in public for misguided pride and often intentional cruelty.
Thank you for supporting Chancellor Folk. Sometimes those who have a moral compass pay a high price in the short run. Best of luck to her and congratulations to those who wisely employ her in the future.
Clare H Newbrand says
Hear! hear! Well said!
Kimberly H. Deloatch says
I agree wholeheartedly As an UNC alum (BSPharm 1980, MEd 1989) and faculty member for 26 years, I am well aware of the contentious history of this monument as well as the difficult history between the University community and those on the BOG and in the legislature who would continue to drag us back into a less than admirable period of our state’s history. Thank you for standing up for Chancellor Holt and for the University community.
MARY ANN H HOLDERNESS says
Thank you to all of you for stepping up and speaking out. You have voiced what so many feel , yet don’t have the direct knowledge of all situations to be sure that what appears to be going on actually is ! I think UNC has lost two dedicated educators . Our reputation and our students will be the worse for these actions of the BOG.
Tish says
As a lifelong resident of NC, I am extremely disappointed in how both the school security, board and chancellor handled Silent Sam. You all allowed a group of disruptive individuals (probably with many paid protestors from out of state), to destroy property AND DID NOTHING to stop them! Someone could have been hurt and you didn’t even care! When you try to destroy your history, no matter how ugly some may think it is, you are doomed to repeat it!!! Silent Sam should have immediately been replaced back on his pedestal and guarded if need be! This is wrong and you all should be ashamed.
Gale says
I agree wholeheartedly! It is anti history to destroy what has been. We need to only learn from it and move on!
Allen Cronenberg says
I wholeheartedly endorse the statement of former members of UNC’s Board of Trustees regarding commendation of Chancellor Folt’s service and leadership. Furthermore, in the ten years since returning to North Carolina, I have been appalled by the shortsightedness and many wrong-headed actions of the legislature and the sometimes mean-spirited actions of the Board of Trustees.
I commend these former members of UNC’s Board of Trustees for speaking out and for continuing to provide leadership for the university and the state.
Allen Cronenberg, BA (1962) and MA (1964)
John Paar, MD says
Another action by reactionary Republican board members against a chancellor dedicated to equality and justice and movement away from a racist past. North Carolinians can be justifiably proud of the leadership of Ms. Folt and so many others over the history of UNC.
Stop interfering with academic freedom and efforts to right racist wrongs!
Deb Graczyk says
Thank you – well said.
Samuel Reid Ogilvie, Jr. says
Thank you, Tim Burnett, Phil Clay, Don Curtis, John Ellison, Paul Fulton, Peter Grauer, Wade Hargrove, Johnny Harris, Barbara Hyde, Jean Kitchin, Kel Landis, Roger Perry, Tom Lambeth, Steve Lerner, Phil Phillips, Sallie Shuping Russell, Nelson Schwab, John Townsend, Richard “Stick” Williams and Bob Winston. Your action is commendable and in keeping with the high principles and ideals upon which our country and our university were founded upon. That statue and others like it represent a way of thinking and an era one can only describe as morally reprehensible.
Leonard Brendel says
I am very disappointed that Chancellor Folt could not leave on her own terms. As a graduate of UNC, I have been impressed with Chancellor Folt’s leadership at UNC through some troubling times. North Carolina’s awful and embarrassing legislature has poked its corrupt fingers into nearly all aspects of life in the Old North State, and I suspect this is just one more example.
Judythe Dingfelder says
Bravo bravo bravo. I am sure the late Dean Smith and William Friday would agree.
Rick Hollowell says
Well said. Thank you!
Philip Bromberg says
Thank you for writing and making available this statement. The reprehensible motivation of the BOG has been evidenced by their treatment of UNC Presidents Ross and Spellings, and now with UNC/CH Chancellor Folt. One wonders what Interim UNC President Roper thinks of the BOG’s firing of Chancellor Folt and how the appointment of a new UNC President as well as UNC/CH Chancellor will proceed. Sadly, the South continues to be represented by people who refuse to recognize the evil of slavery and the abominations of the Jim Crow era.
Annette G. Greer says
Your support of our female leadership is duly noted and respected. It is not due to their knowledge, skills, or leadership that they are no longer with us. They are women who stand in the gap for all future female leaders.
Mary Musacchia says
Thank you Chancellor Folt for taking a courageous stand in the face of a monumental failure in leadership and blatant disregard for the feelings and safety of the students and faculty of the campus. Thank you to the former members of the UNC-CH Board of Trustees for your thoughtful words. It is disheartening that the Board of Trustees and the UNC System Board of Governors has determined that politics outweighs education, reason, truth seeking, and creating a future for our young women and men.
Dr Maurice McDonald says
I came to UNC in the fall of 1958 as a naive 17 yr old and left after the spring of 1966, better off and certainly more wiser with 2 degrees that I still cherish.
Recent events seem proof enough that this is no longer
the university I attended or would want to attend now.
Maybe it’s time for the current Boards of Trustees and Governors to be forced out so a new start can be made
by others to truly make UNC “great again”.
Jim says
Hi everybody.
Sam has been standing for over 100 years.
What exactly made you come forth now? Could it be a political motivation or just hatred?
Mark Austin says
Perhaps it’s a greater understanding of the world. Growth. Learning. Understanding women have rights to vote, to work, to earn the same income as men. Understanding people with dark skin aren’t 3/5 of a human being. Understanding someone who doesn’t make the same religious choices isn’t evil and should be destroyed.
Human beings need to grow, to evolve, to understand. None of the examples I used are complete, but good people are working on understanding. It is backward, regressive, and (yes) racist to go back 100 years. You call it political motivation as a smoke screen, when the truth is humans have evolved: wheels, machinery, computers, space travel, cell phones, etc.
Stan Tunnell says
As a Carolina graduate, I thank you Chancellor Folt for your service to our great university. Also, thank you Trustees for your support of her and the university’s effort to move forward.
Lee S. Downie, '82 says
I would never have believed that the Governors and Trustees could mete out such shabby treatment as they have to Tom Ross, Margaret Spellings and Carol Folt. Sad times in North Carolina.
John Anderson says
Unfortunately, UNC’s management of its academic scandal (anyone who has ever worked as a university faculty member knows that a lot of people at UNC knew what was going on and willingly turned their heads to academic fraud) and its inept handling of the Silent Sam issue pointed clearly to the inability of Dr. Folt and UNC to accept accountability or even remotely understand why the statue of Silent Sam was on the UNC campus. Dr. Folt allowed a small group of activists and lawbreakers to take control of and set direction for a major university and a NC jewel that taxpayers had entrusted to her. She made her decision. It was the wrong one and, now, she is paying the professional price for poor judgment and weak leadership. I, for one, am disappointed that UNC, while claiming to be a world class institution, acts like a backwater organization. I am an alumnus who spent large sums of corporate money supporting UNC programs. However, I will advise my grandchildren to look elsewhere for a quality, ethical education
Dennis says
As a lifelong resident and taxpayer of North Carolina and a retired employee of UNC, with working interactions with Mrs. Folt, I came to see her in as an overpaid, selfcentered, elitist academic. From her parting actions as Chancellor, she demonstrated her contempt for the State law of the citizens of North Carolina. She was basically an opportunist interloper in the state who lined her pockets while here.
Joe Compton says
Thanks to Chancellor Folt for all she has done for UNC. I agree with the statement of the former trustees. Thanks for speaking out for so many citizens of North Carolina.
Rhonda (Alumni - (1987 &1989) says
I thought the Chancellor’s idea of building a museum on campus to display the entire history of the campus, including Silent Sam and his roots, was the most appropriate thing to do. History cannot be erased. Studying history is very important for the present and the future. I understand that Dr. Folt had that proposal shot down and was at a loss as to what to do. She has struggled with several issues. I guess she just got tired of the struggle and decided to resign. It seems cold to push her out the door when she was already preparing to leave. I think she tried to do her best. I still wish the idea of the museum would eventually be accepted. Carolina has a rich and extensive history that should not be ignored.
E.T. Samulski says
In just a few years the legacies of Frank Porter Graham and William Clyde Friday have been undermined by an activist and partisan Board of Governors (BOG) of the University System. Maybe it’s not surprising that the vindictiveness rampant in national politics would eventually trickle down to state politics. But I naively thought the self-evident value of Carolina as an internationally-ranked institution, carefully nourished for over two hundred years by a people who understood the importance of higher education, constituted a kind of physical barrier against party politics and favoritism. Not so.
The recent dismissals in the UNC administration were made by a Board of Governors whose membership was inflated by political appointees. BOG membership should not be predicated by allegiance to a party or personal alliances but by career experience in higher education and love for our unique Carolina. These changes at the highest levels of UNC are not only a serious threat to the oldest public university and the University System itself but to the State and its ability to attract sustainable employers. The Amazons, Apples, and Googles of the world, even if offered enormous tax breaks, will balk at the slightest appearance of sectarian governance of education. The people of North Carolina would be wise to heed the advice of former Carolina Board of Trustees to put aside partisanship and partiality when governing, as well as the advice of George Washington— “Let me warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party”— and Robert E. Lee: “Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to keep one.”
Sammy Williams says
To me history is a great lesson for the future and reminders of it should be made reference to frequently. While I completely understand the issues at hand, I don’t agree with the handling of the issues. Your collective response mentions the politics of these decisions and heaven knows this age in which we live has gone too far into politics and too little in doing what is right. Maybe removing Silent Sam is the right decision, but I can hardly say that the method and madness of how it was removed was right. Applauding the handling of this by Folt and the other parties for actions or inactions is wrong. We are a nation of laws and there are correct ways to get results. None of this was handled correctly.
As for Folt, I never was a fan; she never convince me she was a homerun hire and I don’t think my alma mater will miss one day she is gone. Between Folt and Thorp, we have had poor leadership.
What’s done is done though and time to move on. As with all history, there are lessons to be learned from all that has been done. Now is the time to come together and move forward hiring a new Chancellor with wisdom and leadership to keep our University great.
Go Tar Heels.
Sally Bryan says
Why does it always have to be blamed on politics. It is in truth, about federal money and grants, white washing in the name safety and peace, caving in to the squeaking wheel. This institution is about avoiding bad press and complaints from parents, public, and press and anything that threatens their coffers of money and false prestige. Their imagine and halo were threatened and indeed, has now slipped by cowering down to the riotous few.
Ed Henson, AB ‘71, JD ‘74 says
Well said. Thank you. The Republican led General Assembly and their hand-picked Board of Governors are doing their best to destroy one of North Carolina’s greatest assets.
Christopher Nance says
“UNC has been a beacon for progress in North Carolina over the past 225 years. At this nation’s beginnings, the leaders of our state understood the value of educating its citizens and chartered a university with access for all.”
Yep. They supported the idea of sovereign state governments being superior to a centralized federal government. They valued so much the contributions of our State to those means, that they erected a statue to memorialize those from the school who fought for those ideals; in order to educate and inspire future generations of students.
It is only fairly recent that academia has been infected by the disease of socialist thought. That is not progression, but regression.
Matthew McGuigan says
The actual history can’t be erased, but it sure can be hidden and erased from memory. Once erased, it is easier to replace the memory with a lie, such as this fabricated controversy and the article I just read.
Those represented by the boy soldier were defending their home from invasion. North Carolinians weren’t fighting for slavery. “Silent Sam” is incapable of being a threat.
I commend the board of governors for recognizing the need for new leadership at the State’s flagship University.
Radical activists, some violent, appear to have infiltrated the University. Chancellor Folt is an activists, that abused her position and she broke the law. She should have been sent home that day.
We should be building, instead of tearing down.
It is high time to right this wrong. Flush the activists out of the University and replace them with teachers. Teach real North Carolina history. Restore Silent Sam and teach the students what the memorial truly represents, Duty, honor, and sacrifice.
Ellen says
Amen to your every word.
Robert Hand says
You’re totally correct, sir! I salute you, and I thank you for your clarity of thought, reason, and decency!
John Comer says
As life long resident of North Carolina, I was appalled that an institution of higher learning would allow mob rule and violate the laws of our state. Until the laws are changed, Silent Sam should be restored to his original place. Maybe studies for tolerance and true history can be taught and learned from this experience.
Gilbert Jones says
If I could stop a dime of my taxes from going to UNC-CH, I would gladly do it. The University has lost track of the mission to educate North Carolinians. What happened with Silent San is at best, mob rule. What if students had destroyed a tribute to Martin Luther King? Sadly, most UNC-CH students know so little about both the Civil War and the civil rights movement that they could not pass a test on either. Businesses are judged by the quality of the product they produce. The quality of the UNC-CH product is poor.