Opinion: Students need to hear from the history task force

On Sept. 2, Chancellor Carol Folt announced the UNC-Chapel Hill History Task Force. This comes after the Board of Trustees voted to rename Saunders Hall, and the task force would be responsible for researching and examining the racial history of the University, submitting the first report on McCorkle Place and Carolina Hall by Nov. 18.

More reports and topics will follow, but this is the first and arguably the most important step.

Maybe the November deadline for a report is a soft one, but we hope that it is taken seriously.

In her announcement, Folt named the chairpersons of this Task Force — Winston Crisp, vice chancellor for student affairs; Amy Locklear Hertel, director of the American Indian Center; and history professor James Leloudis — and put a deadline on their work. Members of the task force should include faculty, students, staff, alumni and community members — everyone who cares deeply about contextualizing UNC’s racial history.

According to the announcement, the task force is responsible for delivering a report on potential historical markers or exhibits to contextualize McCorkle Place and Carolina Hall by the November trustee meeting.

The University’s racial history has been a topic of debate and protest on this campus for years — often focusing on Silent Sam and Saunders Hall.

Students rallied this past spring to change the name of Saunders Hall to Hurston Hall.

Zora Neale Hurston appeared on the ballot for student body president 403 times this past spring.

Silent Sam has been spray-painted twice and blindfolded with a Confederate flag twice since July.

This editorial board stood up to call for Saunders’ renaming, and we’ve supported students with a few creative ways of protesting Silent Sam’s presence on campus.

The contextualization of UNC’s racial history means so much to many students on campus, and there are many conversations taking place every day. Students have a lot to say.

Despite the obvious importance the contextualization of McCorkle Place and Carolina Hall holds for students, faculty, staff and community members, we’re worried about when we will see the fruits of the task force’s labor. Not all of the task force members have been selected, and there are only 36 days left until the report is expected.

That worries us.

By creating the UNC-Chapel Hill History Task Force, the University was responding to the concerns of its student body, and we are glad it intends to further look into a problem that matters a great deal to this campus.

But the student body needs a task force that takes every last minute of the 77 days it’s given to gather student input and work with the student body and the community. The task force then needs to bring a report to the Board of Trustees on Nov. 18, ready to take action and move UNC forward.

We don’t expect everything to be solved by the November meeting. We don’t expect a perfect solution by November. We don’t expect all of the conversations on campus to go away if a historical marker is placed by Silent Sam or Carolina Hall.

We just need something. Students need to participate and voice their concerns, and they need to hear from the task force that’s handling something that matters to them.