UNC wants your ideas on the best location for Silent Sam

UNC-Chapel Hill Carol Folt is soliciting ideas for a location for Silent Sam, the Confederate statue that was pulled down by protesters on Aug. 20.

On Monday, Folt wrote to the campus community, saying the university had created a dedicated email address to take public input on the monument. The address, uncmonument@unc.edu, is available for anyone to submit their ideas.

Folt and the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees have until Nov. 15 to submit a plan to the UNC system’s Board of Governors for Silent Sam’s “disposition and preservation.” The monument is now being kept in storage.

“I know that many in our community and beyond feel passionately about the monument,” Folt wrote, adding, “Thank you in advance for your input on this important topic that will help shape the future of North Carolina.”

Folt has said she thinks the statue should be in a safe and alternative location. Late last month she released a statement that said: “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.”

A 2015 state law prevents altering or moving historic monuments. It is unclear whether the Board of Governors will go along with any plan to move the statue. At least one member has said the statue should be reinstalled in its former location.

That statue’s large pedestal still sits on McCorkle Place, at the Franklin Street entrance to the university.

Jane Stancill: 919-829-4559; @janestancill

This story was originally published September 24, 2018 at 2:32 PM.