We, the undersigned, speaking as individual graduate students and alumni of the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, declare our unwavering support for Maya Little and her nonviolent act of civil disobedience. As public health graduate students, we are acutely aware of the negative effects of racism on the health and well-being of people of color. Silent Sam is a form of institutional racism, and poses undue mental and emotional harm to many who encounter it. We condemn Chancellor Folt and her administration’s willful inaction in the face of ongoing, violent, and racist threats against Maya.
In failing to protect students, workers, and faculty of color, the University under the direction of Chancellor Folt has fallen short in one of its most basic tasks. When institutions cannot be counted on to defend those lives who give it life, individual students and workers take on the responsibility of challenging the institution’s complicity in structures of oppression. Whether it sides with justice or power, the University’s response will not be forgotten. It is our view that universities exist to enable the pursuit of new ideas, such that today’s assumptions do not become tomorrow’s dogmas.
We join our friends and colleagues in the Department of History (and other departments) by making the following demands:
- We demand that Chancellor Folt and her administration remove Silent Sam from its current location, given that their legal right to do so is unambiguous.
- We demand that the administration not take punitive action, legal or otherwise, against Maya for her act of nonviolent civil disobedience.
- We demand that UNC Board of Trustees strike down the 16 year moratorium on renaming campus buildings.
- We demand fair compensation for the campus workers who cleaned Silent Sam of blood and ink without protective gear, when it is Folt who should have taken responsibility for attempting to whitewash UNC’s history.
- We demand that the administration act to address institutional racism on campus.
In our collective hope for a “Carolina for All,” we ask Chancellor Folt and her administration to take seriously the state motto of North Carolina: to be, rather than to seem. Until such a time as UNC lives the ideals it ascribes to itself, we will join our fellow graduate students and alumni across departments in recognizing and condemning the personal and institutional actors that perpetuate white supremacy on our campus.
Signed:
Christina Chauvenet
Sarah Treves-Kagan
Kathryn Wouk
Yanica Faustin
Megan Carlucci
Ponta Abadi
Juliana de Groot
Caroline Chandler
Venita Embry
Claire Sadeghzadeh
Grace Jaworski
Madeleine Eldridge
Hunter Holbrook
Megan Evans
Carolyn Lamere
Nora Simmons
Justin Mayhew
Mattea Alexander
Hannah Quigley
Erin Magee
Joanna Ramirez
Waru Gichane
Holly Krohn
Jessica Huey
Heather Biehl
Anna Wallin
Meagan Robichaud
Nicole Davis
Amelia Mackenzie
Kate Steber
Krista Scheffey
Carla Salvo-Lewis
Reana Thomas
Mikaela Freundlich
Kristin Bergman
Alison Swiatlo
Hannah Potter
Kate LeMasters
Rachel Scheckter
Ida Griesemer
Michele Plaugic
Dirk Davis
Rebecca Payne
Ben Banasiewicz
Austyn Holleman
Rebeccah Sokol
Leah Taraskiewicz
Libby McClure
Suzy Khachaturyan
Dianna Padilla
Supriya Sadagopan
Caroline Efird
Sheila Patel
Will Bayliss
Em Pike
Mallory Michalak
Michelle Huang
Ellen Chetwynd
Adele Henderson
Emily Donovan
Mike Dolan Fliss
Elynn Kann
Cristina Leos
Sarah Rhodes
Alexandra Munson
Allie George
Sara La Lone
Christine Walsh
Allison M Lacko
Josh Boegner
Varsha Subramanyam
Andrew Seidenberg
Melissa Luong
Alyssa Grube
Willa Dong
Eleanor Wertman
Lillie Armstrong
Elizabeth Christenson
Corinne Wiesner
Stephanie Bahorski
Andrew Bradford
Linda Chamiec-Case
Melissa L Jensen
Anna Austin
Rodrigo Costa Liao
Kate Westmoreland
Melanie Sadur
Elizabeth Kamai
Luis Maldonado
Devika Chawla
Joseph Engeda
Kristin Voltzke
Shahar Shmuel
Elizabeth Kelly
Elaine King
Rebecca Stebbins
Arbor Quist
Mallory Turner
Samantha Drover
Amber M Hall
Caitlin R Williams
Fekir Negussie
Manali Nekkanti
Emma Green
Kelsey Ann White
Colleen Boyle
Michael Plante
Seri Link Anderson
Kea Turner
Rebecca Whitaker
Karen Swietek
Steven Spivack
Natalie Blackburn
Brystana Kaufman
