[caption id=”attachment_131121″ align=”aligncenter” width=”5760″] A statue of Jefferson Davis is seen on the University of Texas campus, Tuesday, May 5, 2015, in Austin, Texas. As University of Texas administrators consider a request to remove a statue that symbolizes the Confederacy, the number of memorials in Texas honoring the Confederate cause and its leaders continues to grow. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
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The University of Texas at Austin is actually considering caving into the demands of vandals and will be altering or removing statues of Confederate and historical figures on campus.
A task force at the University of Texas at Austin released the findings of a committee Monday. The committee, which included leaders of the student government at UT-Austin, faculty members and administrators, met six times since June to discuss the statue of Jefferson Davis on campus, as well as statues of President George Washington, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Confederate Postmaster General John Reagan.
The committee is calling for those figures to either have explanatory plaques added to the statues or to have one or more statues moved to a different area of campus, Inside Higher Ed reported.
Two public forums were held on the presence of the statues back in July, and more than 3,100 people responded to an online survey.
These statues have been an ongoing topic of discussion since at least early May when the Jefferson Davis statue was defaced with the words, “Davis must fall” and “Emancipate UT.”
The movement gained more traction after the Charleston, S.C. shooting in June, which sparked a wave of anti-Confederate actions at schools across the South.
University President Gregory Fenves said he will review the report before making any final decision.
