(CNN) A man and a woman were arrested this week on suspicion of vandalizing a University of North Carolina memorial that is dedicated to slaves and other African-Americans who helped build the university.

Ryan Francis Barnett, 31, and Nancy Rushton McCorkle, 50, were arrested Monday by UNC police, accused of vandalizing the Unsung Founders Memorial on the early morning of March 31 on the Chapel Hill campus, the school said.

The memorial was defaced with "racist and other deplorable language," interim Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz said in a message posted on the university's website. The memorial has since been cleaned, he said.

Barnett also is accused of vandalizing an outdoor art installment near the university's Hanes Art Center, police said. It was defaced with "hateful language and racial slurs," Guskiewicz said.

"The majority of the defacement was graffiti," Randy B. Young, UNC's media relations manager, told CNN in an email.