As the Fall 2018 semester draws to a close, many undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill could face uncertainty about their final course grades for the semester due to a potential revolt by their graduate student instructors.
In response to an ongoing campus controversy over the “Silent Sam” Confederate statue that stood on UNC’s campus from 1913-2018, a large number of graduate student teaching assistants have pledged to withhold their student’s final grades until new demands for the statue’s removal are met.
In 1913, a number of local historical groups in North Carolina decided to erect a large-scale memorial on the UNC campus to honor veterans of the Civil War, which included a number of UNC faculty and students who had left their positions to fight for the Confederacy. Beginning in the 1960s, the monument began to face stiff opposition from civil rights activists concerning the message promoted by its existence, and the controversy over its existence on a public campus has grown in recent years.
Last August, the Silent Sam statue was vandalized and toppled over following a large protest against it. In response, the statue has been removed from its initial spot and moved to an unknown location on campus to prevent further vandalism.
In response to the controversy, the UNC Board of Trustees has attempted to find a dignified solution that addresses student concerns over the statue’s location on campus, while also not allowing protesters to rewrite history by completely erasing any memories of the statue’s existence. Their proposed solution includes moving the historical statue to a newly constructed museum on campus that would cost more than $5 million dollars to fund and also serve as a museum to contextualize UNC’s history and role in the Civil War.
However, a large number of students have refused this proposal, and have pledged to reject any deal that allows the statue to be moved back on to the UNC campus, regardless of where it is located. Additionally, these students have also demanded that the money allocated for running the museum and providing security for it be allocated to increase the wages of graduate student workers, provide dental insurance for workers, and lower parking costs on campus.
Now a large number of graduate student teachers are threatening to withhold undergraduate student final grades until their demands are met, which could cause immense problems on campus, especially for students who may be applying to medical or law schools and need to send updated transcripts.
Silent Sam was a monument created for all the wrong reasons, but is part of UNC history nonetheless. While displaying it in a prominent place on campus may be inappropriate, it is a part of history that cannot be rewritten and should not be forgotten. Creating a new museum where students can learn all the facts about UNC’s historical involvement with the Civil War is the best option that provides a respectful, but accurate approach to history. Simply smashing a monument to pieces and forgetting about it forever doesn’t counteract history or make it go away.
John Patrick (@john_pat_rick) is a graduate of Canisius College and Georgia Southern University. He interned for Red Alert Politics during the summer of 2012 and has continued to contribute regularly.
