A crew removed plaques honoring Confederate soldiers from the Rotunda shortly before 7.am. Sunday.
The removal of the plaques was a part of the resolutions passed Friday by the Board of Visitors. The Board also passed resolutions bolstering the enforcement of the University’s open-flame policy and formally classifying the Academical Village as an official facility, which will allow the University to regulate the presence of firearms.
The Board of Visitors voted on these resolutions following the release of a list of demands supported by the Black Student Alliance and numerous other student groups. The demands were released following the white nationalists events of Aug. 11 and 12 and ask that the University better contextualize its historical landscape and take steps to improve diversity on Grounds.
The list of demands garnered many endorsements from other groups on Grounds, including the Minority Rights Coalition, U.Va. Students United and the Latinx Student Alliance. Student Council also endorsed the demands.
The University also fulfilled another demand to recognize a $1,000 donation made by the Ku Klux Klan in 1921 by reinvesting the money — now $12,500 — into a fund to aid victims of the violence at the Aug. 12 rally.
A poll of the student body conducted by The Cavalier Daily found about 66 percent of respondents agreed with the idea of removing the plaques, while roughly only 24 percent disagreed and nine percent did not know or had no opinion.
The University has not yet announced where the plaques will be relocated.
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