TO THE EDITOR:
The Department of Religious Studies is located in Saunders Hall. At their meeting in April 2014, the faculty in the Department of Religious Studies voted unanimously to support the renaming of Saunders Hall.
William L. Saunders led the North Carolina Ku Klux Klan in the late nineteenth century, a fact that was emphasized in 1920 as a reason for his memorialization on UNC’s campus.
The Ku Klux Klan was and is an organization that espouses racial, ethnic and religious hatred. Retaining the name contradicts UNC’s policy on non-discrimination, which claims “the University is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment.”
Therefore, the Department of Religious Studies urges the University to rename Saunders Hall.
Randall Styers
Chairman, Department of Religious Studies
