Almost exactly a year ago, Duke University removed a statue of General Robert E. Lee after it was vandalized, and Duke officials decided last week to keep the space where it once stood empty.

Monday, after years of protest, community organizers tore down Silent Sam on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill, sending reverberations that were felt nationwide.

Today, the North Carolina State Historical Commission voted not to remove three Confederate statues from the state Capitol grounds, which are less than two miles down the road from the NC State Belltower, citing a 2015 law that prevents them from doing so.

The commission’s vote, combined with a growing collective realization among students in North Carolina that Confederate monuments have no place in our public spaces, necessitates an organized campaign to remove the state Capitol Confederate monuments.

NC State students must take responsibility for organizing such a campaign. Just as Duke students protested the Lee statue and UNC-CH students protested Silent Sam, so too must NC State students lead the charge in protesting the downtown Confederate monuments.

You may think that NC State has a tradition of not partaking in activism, but this is simply not true (and even if it were, would not be a good excuse). The first female Student Body President Cathy Sterling famously organized a university-wide protest of the Vietnam War in May 1970, leading students to the state Capitol in downtown Raleigh, disrupting exam week and causing the university to reschedule testing.

After police shootings in Charlotte two years ago, NC State student Achaia Dent and others organized a die-in that filled Talley Student Union with students protesting police violence.

I have written extensively about the culture of activism at NC State if you want to learn more, but the short version is this: NC State students and faculty care deeply about political activism.

Given all of this, it seems obvious to me that a student-led initiative to remove our Confederate monuments downtown is imminent, but somebody has to start it. Who will take charge?

One of the first names that comes to mind for me is Jess Errico, NC State’s student body president.

After protesters toppled Silent Sam on Monday, Errico and her colleagues on the Student Government executive team released a statement that affirmed their support of the protesters who wanted the monument taken down.

“To the students and activists who wanted Silent Sam brought down: We stand with you,” Errico and other Student Government officials said in the statement.

The statement describes what made removal of Silent Sam a pressing issue and why Errico and her team took the side of protesters despite the illegality of their actions.

However, the statement stops short of condoning similar action in downtown Raleigh. Errico and Student Body Vice President Meredith Spence Beaulieu told me later that they do not endorse unlawful action.

“I do not endorse unlawful destruction of property, but in the same breath am extremely frustrated that over fifty years of peaceful demonstrations, protests, and petitions were ignored by those with the power to affect change,” Errico said. “It is impossible for me to pass any kind of judgment on these actions when the correct paths of expression were thoroughly explored and subsequently ignored.”

When I asked whether she would be supportive of protesters if they were to destroy the downtown Confederate monuments, she said that she would.

“Yes, you could expect a similarly supportive statement should [they] be removed,” Errico said. “However, it is my hope that those with the power to remove the statue[s] legally will exercise it and demonstrate they have heard the cries for justice.”

Although Errico and her counterparts can offer supportive sentiments for protesters who destroy Confederate monuments, their (reasonable) refusal to support destruction of public property puts them in an awkward position regarding an organized removal campaign.

Such a campaign would almost certainly require a consideration of illegally destroying the monuments. The North Carolina state legislature is dominated by Republicans who are unlikely to support any bill that might result in the monuments’ removal. Very few Southern localities appear willing to remove Confederate monuments.

Regardless of whether Errico is up to the task, there are other people and groups at NC State with the energy and drive that organized protest requires. Within just the past two years, NC State has seen this energy with anti-Trump protests, protests against police violence, and events in support of multiculturalism.

Whether it is first-year students, grad students, Student Government officials or all of the above and more, the time is ripe for activists to stand against monuments to white supremacy at our state Capitol.

To whomever takes the lead on removing Raleigh’s Confederate monuments: You will have the student body president’s backing, you will have my backing, and you will have the backing of students and activists across North Carolina.

Please, step up.

Carter Pape is a graduate of NC State mathematics (Bachelor of Science, 2018) and is currently doing freelance writing and development. Pape is a former member of Technician’s editorial board.