The removal of the Confederate statue from the center of campus to the Confederate Soldiers Cemetery nearby is a divisive issue that students have been pushing for months.
However, for some it represents the history of lives lost.
“It’s kind of a confusing situation,” said alumnus Howard Smith. “I really have mixed emotions having a relative that was killed at Shiloh.”
Smith had no idea the Confederate cemetery was on campus until Tuesday night’s vote.
“My family was too poor to own slaves, and I think that they were just fighting because it was a threat to their home,” said Smith.
It was a unanimous vote to move the Confederate statue to this burial ground. But not everyone agrees.
“I would like to see the statue stay where it is in order to remind us of the courage that they had to fight for their homeland,” said one anonymous comment which read at the student senate meeting.
Sophomore Katie Dames helped bring forward the resolution to move the statue.
“I encourage people who may be opposed to the resolution to look at the research that goes into it,” said Dames.
The sophomore shares that the proposed recommendation was conceptualized before she got to campus.
“It’s already been through graduate council,” said senior Jarrius Adams. “It has to go to our vice chancellor, and after that it’s a little fuzzy.”
Adams is the president of the University of Mississippi Gospel Choir, an organization which led last month’s march in opposition to the statue. He says the push to move it just isn’t for personal benefit.
“When you talk about recruiting African American students, you definitely want to move the statue.”
While student senate leaders have made their voices heard on the monument, what school administrative officials will say still remains to be seen.