20 former UNC board members speak out in support of outgoing chancellor Carol Folt

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- UNC's Board of Trustees is having an emergency meeting Friday morning.

It comes days after Chancellor Carol Folt announced she's stepping down from the job and after she ordered the removal of the base of the Silent Sam Confederate monument.

Twenty former board members of the university released a statement this week also saying they could no longer "stay silent" about Tuesday's actions against now outgoing Chancellor Folt.

The former trustees said "Since arriving at Chapel Hill, Carol Folt has stood strong for the university. We are much better for the work she has done. However, during her tenure, increasing pressure from Raleigh and the Board of Governors has put politics ahead of the best interests of education, research, and patient care."

The statement also said "Silent Sam came to embody it all. Tuesday, Chancellor Folt paid the price for her leadership and North Carolina lost another great opportunity to resurrect its history as a progressive part of this nation."

"We stand together in support of Chancellor Folt. Regardless of one's view on Silent Sam, the Confederate monument had become a lightning rod for violence and intolerance on this campus and had to be removed."

The Board of Trustees will hold that emergency meeting Friday morning at 10:30 in the Chancellor's Ballroom at the Carolina Inn.