Our Mission

Our primary ask of the Board

Our focus remains unchanged—changing the name of the University, with particular focus on removing Lee, as a necessary step in the process of change. Lee is a barrier to progress for many reasons:

  1. He is a symbol of white supremacy. Even when he was President of Washington College, he was known and referred to as General Lee, who led a rebel army that fought to maintain and expand slavery.
  2. The name as it is divides the attention of university leaders between implementing the Strategic Plan and defending/rationalizing the university’s past.
  3. His name divides the university community.
  4. His inclusion in the name does not accurately reflect the values and 21st century initiatives of the university.
  5. Lee is foundational to a culture built on myths, lies, and legends. That culture has a negative effect on campus climate and perpetuates the myth of the lost cause.
  6. His inclusion in the name hinders the recruitment of the best students, faculty, and professional staff.
  7. The veneration of Lee, even lessened, still can act as a magnet for those who do not have the best interests of the University at heart, but are serving their own outdated agendas.

Other asks of the Board

Beyond changing the name, we encourage the Board of Trustees to honor the mission and community commitments in the Strategic Plan by accelerating the pace of change related to the initiatives in that plan. We note that 8 of the 13 Strategic Initiatives deal with the way that the university will address equity, diversity, and inclusion in terms of recruiting, campus climate, culture, and support.

We also Encourage the Board to address problems related to campus climate that have been raised by Not Unmindful and other groups and individuals. These steps include:

  1. Soliciting and prioritizing unfiltered feedback from current students and the recent alumni—those who are best informed to speak to current campus climate.
  2. Appropriately funding and staffing administrative offices and support functions necessary to enable and empower all students to enjoy their student experience.
  3. Reforming or eliminating systems, organizations, and events that maintain, foster, or promote exclusion and division on campus.

Our part

Finally, as alumni, we commit to support the university with our time, energy, and money as it makes these changes. And though the University has made positive steps in this direction (the changes to University Chapel), it has slid backwards in others (a commitment to DEI, though we understand the current climate for what it is). We will continue to hold its feet to the fire to follow through on the commitments it has already made.