The UNC Faculty Council met for the second time this semester on Friday. The meeting began with updates on the status of Silent Sam.
“So next, turning to one of our favorite topics that I hope we won’t have to talk about too much longer: Silent Sam,” said Leslie Parise, chairperson of the faculty.
The Faculty Council, among other campus groups, has been holding workshops to discuss Silent Sam. In October, the council passed a resolution that requested the removal of the statue, which was delivered to Chancellor Folt.
At this meeting, it was announced that the Board of Governors had allowed more time for Folt and the Board of Trustees to develop their plan on Silent Sam.
“We asked for an extension, and we were granted an extension — I don’t know the exact date yet — to early December for us to put forward the proposal together with the Board of Trustees,” Folt said. “So, we’re very grateful for that.”
Folt emphasized that she and her colleagues have been spending time reading the feedback material from the Carolina community, particularly from students.
“I hope that means something in the sense that I want people to realize we really have appreciated the feedback that we get,” Folt said. “Sometimes when we read our essays from students and they tell you things that really matter to them, that gets right to you. I feel like people gave us that same openness of heart when they shared that material.”
After Folt’s remarks, professor Andrew Perrin presented on revisions to undergraduate general education curriculum to make it more meaningful. The revisions focus on the first-year experience.
"A driving understanding of what we’re trying to help students become, as a result particularly of their general education, are people who are capable of using this model of identifying big problems, discovering things in the world about them, evaluating and coming to good judgments about them and then acting in the world upon them,” Perrin said.
