CHAPEL HILL, N.C. _ As a decision about the Silent Sam Confederate monument looms, UNC-Chapel Hill leaders face intense opposition to their proposal to create a $5.3 million history center on campus to house the statue.
Protesters have promised to show up at a meeting of the UNC Board of Governors on Friday, which is due to take up the plan from Chapel Hill campus leaders. It's a recommendation that the Board of Governors' chairman, Harry Smith, said he doesn't like.
"I'm not a fan at all of spending that kind of money," he said in an interview. "At the end of the day, you can change a lot of people's lives with $5.3 million."
He said he finds it hard to understand why there isn't an existing building that would work to house Silent Sam.
The monument, which was toppled from a campus pedestal by protesters in August, has been the source of conflict and debate for years. But in the current semester, the university has been consumed by it. The heat now has the university in the midst of a strike, with graduate student teaching assistants threatening to withhold undergraduate grades at the end of the semester.
On Thursday, the Duke Faculty Union and the Durham Association of Educators added their support to the grade strikers, joining hundreds of UNC students, faculty and alumni, at least 30 student groups and more than 20 other groups that have issued statements. By 3 p.m. Thursday, more than 400 graduate students had signed the letter of demands to the UNC administration.
The graduate students who have promised to withhold grades have been warned by UNC officials that they could face severe consequences, and some observers have called for the teaching assistants to be fired.
On Thursday, Smith met with key student, faculty and campus leaders, he said, "trying to get off the nuclear ledge."
"We have to be careful," he said, "not to create a retaliatory type of decision making. The actions that have transpired have created a lot of emotions, and rightfully so. We've all got to work here and try to get to a good place. At the end of the day, threatening to withhold grades, one, that's not who we are, and two, that's not going to get you the result that you're looking for."
Smith said he had offered for faculty and student leaders to meet with the Board of Governors, "if it's done in a professional, healthy, measured, meaningful way, and respectful. We'll be respectful too, and we'll try to create a healthy dialogue."
Jennifer Standish, a UNC graduate student, supports the grade strike but as a research assistant does not grade undergraduates and therefore can't participate.
Besides the idea of keeping the statue on campus, the grad students are just as upset about a proposed increase in campus policing and a "mobile force platoon" that would be deployed at large protests, Standish said.
She said she's not surprised about an outpouring of support from allies of the graduate students.
"The stakes are really high," Standish said. "This is really dangerous and so it makes sense to me that a lot of people are finally realizing that."
Teaching assistants are willing to work with deans, provost and university administrators "to work together to find a solution to this and to our demands," Standish said.
She said the grade withholding graduate students are aware of the consequences to their careers, but the university administration has not listened to any other forms of protest or conversation. "This is the only way that we feel like we can protect our students," she said. "We've totally taken into account the risks."
Faculty and others say the situation has gotten out of control.
"This whole grade strike has really rattled the university, because I don't think the administration really expected this to happen," said Deb Aikat, associate professor in the UNC School of Media and Journalism. "A lot of people are very divided that this grade strike will affect our students, and clearly that is not the right approach. That's one side. Then on the other side, there are a lot of people who feel that this is the only way to get the attention of authorities."
Aikat said he has never seen faculty "so angry" about an issue. "This is a very divisive situation," he said, adding he had heard of some faculty members discussing a no confidence motion against the administration.
The impact of the grade strike is so far unknown, with UNC officials saying they have not received "specific reports" of missing grades so far. A UNC spokeswoman said grades are due within 72 hours of an exam in a course. Exams are scheduled to end on Friday, and the winter graduation ceremony is set for Sunday.
The impact might not be clear until then.
All of that pressure will come to a head Friday, when the Board of Governors takes up the issue.
The board will consider the recommendation from UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt and the UNC campus Board of Trustees to build a new history center by 2022 that would give the full context of Silent Sam's history and that would cost $800,000 a year to operate. Folt and board members said they preferred the statue to be located off campus somewhere, but that was not within their purview.
If the UNC Board of Governors agrees with the idea of a new on-campus history center, the plan would have to go before the state historical commission. A 2015 state law prevents historic monuments from being relocated in most cases. It is unclear whether UNC officials have opened discussions with lawmakers about making a change to the law, in order to move the statue off UNC's campus _ as many faculty and students want.
The history center idea, Aikat said, "is a proposal that nobody likes."
But the reality is that the faculty feels helpless, as does the administration, he said. The groups are at an impasse, Aikat said, and "nobody knows how to resolve that."
