Students from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media are trying to transform the image of McCorkle Place through the launch of Envision Carolina — a new, six-week-long campaign that kicked off on Nov. 5.
J.P. Rickabaugh, a senior studying interactive multimedia, is the leader of the campaign. They said it began as an initiative through Gary Kayye’s course which focuses on new media technology and its impact on advertising, marketing and public relations.
“Basically, the big project for the class is something that the professor likes to call ‘The New Media Wars’ in which each section of the class runs a campaign," Rickabaugh said. "They run it concurrently with each other and basically try to get the biggest campaign.”
Rickabaugh and their group chose ‘replace Silent Sam’ as their topic for the project. They have since formed a campaign inspired by this prompt, which includes advocating for an art installation in McCorkle Place.
“We’ve sort of evolved it into this idea of creating an inclusive space within McCorkle Place that accurately represents all of the actions that students and members of the community have taken over the years,” said Frances Crisler, a senior studying strategic communication who manages communications and public relations for the campaign.
Rickabaugh said the campaign's proposal is a series of four archways that would each represent a century — namely the 1700s, 1800s, 1900s and 2000s.
“There'd be depictions, either carvings or banners hung, that depict pieces of history from that time,” Rickabaugh said.
They said that the arch for the 2000s would include banners that could be rotated out to highlight specific stories.
"We do want to depict some of the concrete historical moments, like potentially the toppling of the statue," Rickabaugh said. "But we also want to focus on the achievements of students here and letting them tell their stories.”
