UT task force: Move, or better explain, campus Davis statue

The statues have been repeatedly vandalized this year.

Option 2: Relocate the statue of Jefferson Davis and the inscription near the Littlefield Fountain to an exhibit elsewhere on campus. More recently, newly elected Student Government leaders Xavier Rotnofsky and Rohit Mandalapu made their opposition to the statues a major part of their campaign.

Moving only the Davis statue and an inscription honoring the Confederacy.

“This was very important to us”, he said.

The task force looked into a wide variety of options, but only a few were deemed viable.

Four of which include moving the statues to a museum or exhibit on campus and the remaining option called for the statues to be left where they stood with some sort of signage to be added to the statues to be added to give historical context.

This option would require ongoing maintenance including “removal of graffiti and fix”. The task force warned this would probably prolong the controversy and could attract more vandalism.

A activity pressure of scholars, employees and alumni was created in June to debate the way forward for the Davis statue, in addition to statues of Accomplice generals Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston, and Accomplice Postmaster Common John H. Reagan.

“Rather than maintaining a one-sided interpretation of the past, UT Austin should take its cues from the various groups of students who attend this university and who want to ‘change the world, ‘” the report said.

Dr. Vincent said it’s a relief to finally present these options but said it’s not the end all answer to issues of racism and diversity on campus.

The task force supports the relocation of the statues to another location because the statues would remain in the university’s possession. In July, Texas Democrats asked Gov. Greg Abbott to evaluate the appropriateness of Confederate monuments at the state Capitol – a request that occurred the same day South Carolina lawmakers voted to remove the Confederate flag from its Capitol grounds. After two public meetings and more than 3,000 online comments, the task force has released five broad recommendations.

Not included among them was doing nothing and leaving statues of Davis and other tributes to the Confederacy in place.

UT spokesman J.B. Bird said there is no timetable for Fenves to decide what, if anything, to do with the statues, “but he would like to resolve it relatively quickly”. “We are the obvious, most logical choice because the statues were executed by Pompeo Coppini, and we are the home of the Pompeo Coppini archives, and the statues were paid for by George Littlefield, and we are the home of Littlefield’s archives”.