UNC leader, under fire, discusses Silent Sam deal. What we know, what questions remain.
As a group of UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members call for Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz to resign, claiming he was dishonest about how Silent Sam Confederate monument deals were negotiated, he is again insisting that he was not involved in the 2019 settlements.
The UNC-CH chapter of the American Association of University Professors sent a letter to Guskiewicz on Thursday criticizing him as “inexcusably ignorant or deliberately dishonest” when he told UNC faculty in Dec. 2019 that he and university leaders “were not consulted” about a deal to deliver the statue to the Sons of Confederate Veterans and set up a $2.5 million trust for the group.
Recent revelations show that UNC-CH’s vice chancellor for public affairs, Clayton Somers, was involved in some negotiations between the UNC System and SCV. That information only came to light after the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper sued the UNC System and its Board of Governors, forcing the system to explain the secrecy of the deals.
Guskiewicz, in a statement to the Chapel Hill campus Thursday night, reiterated that he did not approve the Silent Sam deals.
“While I did not participate in the negotiations regarding any settlement, as I have previously stated, I was aware discussions were occurring through the UNC System,” Guskiewicz said. “I understood and accepted the UNC System and BOG’s authority to decide what to do with the monument and to negotiate, approve and implement the terms of the settlement.”
Guskiewicz said the threat of the Confederate statue returning to campus was very real and that his “unwavering priority was to permanently remove the monument from campus.” The $2.5 million deal to hand the monument over to the SCV, which was ultimately vacated by a judge in February 2020, was arranged by people whose “ultimate intention was to restore the safety of our campus and local community,” Guskiewicz said.
Some faculty want further explanation
Guskiewicz’s message came hours after he received the letter from the AAUP chapter, a group of about 70 of UNC-CH’s nearly 4,000 faculty members.
In addition to concerns about the Silent Sam deal, the AAUP statement discusses other issues: UNC administrators not disclosing a warning from the Orange County Health Director about fall campus reopening plans amid the coronavirus pandemic and the university’s federal violations in how it handled and reported campus crimes.
“We hope that it communicates and galvanizes the complete lack of faith that the UNC community has in our current leadership,” AAUP chapter president Michael Palm said.
But the chair of the overall UNC-CH faculty, Mimi Chapman, said she isn’t convinced Guskiewicz lied to faculty about what he knew about the Silent Sam deals.
“I am not persuaded by the AAUP statement that anyone should be calling for a resignation at this moment,” Chapman said.
She said she has no plans to put the AAUP letter on the faculty council agenda for its next meeting, but she expects further explanation from the chancellor.
“Do I personally trust the chancellor? I do,” Chapman said. “But his communication does not inspire a level of transparency that people are seeking.”
UNC-CH Vice Chancellor for Communications Joel Curran acknowledged receipt of the AAUP letter and said in a statement that the university has addressed the issues raised publicly many times. Curran also pointed out Guskiewicz’s commitment to shared governance between the faculty and administration through his 25-year tenure as a Carolina faculty member and eight years of service as a faculty leader prior to his role as chancellor.
What we know about Silent Sam deal
The Silent Sam statue of a Confederate soldier, which stood on McCorkle Place on UNC-CH’s campus for more than 100 years, was torn down by protesters in August 2018. In late 2018, the UNC System Board of Governors rejected a $5.3 million plan to house the statue in a history center, which was proposed by former UNC-CH Chancellor Carol Folt and UNC-CH campus trustees. Five UNC System BOG members — Jim Holmes, Bob Rucho, Darrell Allison, Wendy Murphy and Anna Nelson — were tasked with working with UNC-CH leaders to come up with a new solution.
January 2019: Folt resigned, and Guskiewicz stepped in as interim. Bill Roper was also named interim president of the UNC System. Both Roper and Guskiewicz made clear they did not want the statue to return to campus.
February 2019: A representative from the Sons of Confederate Veterans emailed Rucho to talk about the “‘Silent Sam’ controversy.” Somers, who knew the SCV’s attorney, Boyd Sturges, worked on the response to the SCV. The Silent Sam issue was also up against a 2015 state law that protected Confederate statues, so it made sense that Somers would be involved as he was a university liaison to the state legislature as vice chancellor for public affairs.
Spring/Summer 2019: Guskiewicz, in his campus statement Thursday, explained that when he became interim chancellor Somers gave him “general broad updates” about the situation, including potential legislative actions that never panned out. The group of five board members was supposed to be working on a plan, but they never met, deadlines were continuously pushed and they never provided any recommendations.
On or around Nov. 21, 2019: The Silent Sam deals came together — behind closed doors. And exactly who knew what and when is still a bit murky. Somers, UNC System lawyers Ripley Rand and Tom Shanahan, and SCV lawyer Sturges negotiated a deal where the UNC System paid the SCV $74,999 to stay off its campuses. It was signed later that day by Roper and SCV leader Kevin Stone and still stands. That settlement agreement also mentions a forthcoming lawsuit from the SCV. It’s clear that Somers was aware of the potential litigation and plans for a settlement agreement. But it’s not clear whether or not he was involved in negotiating the details of it, including setting up a $2.5 million trust for the SCV to preserve the statue.
Nov. 22, 2019: Board of Governors Chair Randy Ramsey signed the consent order to resolve the litigation. Roper signed it on Nov. 26, and the SCV signed it on Nov. 27, 2019.
Nov. 27, 2019: The UNC Board of Governors Committee on University Governance was presented with the settlement agreement and voted to approve it. The announcement of the $2.5 million deal came that afternoon, which happened to be the day before Thanksgiving. There was no disclosure of the additional $74,999 payment to the SCV.
Dec. 6, 2019: After a week of outrage and a campus protest, then-interim Chancellor Guskiewicz fielded questions from angry and frustrated faculty members about the university’s involvement and knowledge of the Silent Sam deals. He told faculty UNC-CH officials “were not asked to approve the Board of Governors settlement” … “were not consulted” ... and were not part of “weighing in on the $2.5 million trust.” Guskiewicz also said he “was not involved in the negotiations and did not know the details of much of that process.” That day, Guskiewicz sent a letter to the campus community with a similar explanation. Guskiewicz did not mention the Nov. 21 deal of $74,999 at the faculty meeting. He was not asked about it because its existence was not made public until a Dec. 16 op-ed published in the News & Observer.
January 2020: The Daily Tar Heel sued the UNC System and BOG over the secrecy of the settlements, claiming they violated Open Meetings Law.
February 2020: An Orange County judge reverses his decision on the $2.5 million settlement, giving the UNC System the statue and most of its money back.
February 2021: DTH Media and UNC System settle the lawsuit, and the UNC System agrees to detail how the deals were made.
What we still don’t know
In his message Thursday, Guskiewicz again said he knew in fall 2019 fall that a potential resolution would keep the monument off campus and he learned that the “specific terms of the settlement were nearing completion shortly before Thanksgiving.”
But his letter did not directly answer several questions:
Why did Guskiewicz assure faculty and the UNC community (at the Dec. 6 faculty meeting and in campus messages) that UNC-CH leaders were not involved in the $2.5 million deal?
- Was Clayton Somers involved in negotiating the details of the $2.5 million settlement with the SCV?
- If so, was then-interim Chancellor Guskiewicz aware of Somers’ involvement?
- Did Guskiewicz know about the $74,999 payment at that Dec. 6 meeting and Somers’ role in negotiating it?
- If so, why did he not mention it to faculty when asked about the university’s involvement in the Silent Sam deal?
The News & Observer asked university spokesperson Joanne Peters-Denny and Curran for Guskiewicz’s and Somers’ answers to these questions.
Peters-Denny said she does not have details about Somers’ activities given that he worked directly with the Board of Governors. She said Guskiewicz’s letter should answer most of the questions raised.
Chapman, the faculty leader, said in an interview Friday afternoon that she’s noticed a “pattern that when the communication feels off and feels sideways and incomplete it seems to be in these situations where the Board of Governors or system office is heavily involved in things that should be the overview of this campus.”
“It’s not a matter of who is in the role as chancellor,” Chapman said. “The [UNC] System stays the same. Anyone put in that circumstance will probably behave in a similar fashion.”
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 12:45 PM.
