JMU community:
Greetings from Harrisonburg!
These past few months have been incredibly
difficult for our nation and our world, and
I hope you are staying well.
We look forward to reopening the campus in
the fall, and are continuing to work on the
details of every aspect of that plan in accordance
with guidance from the Governor and the Virginia
Department of Health.
We will continue to share those details as
soon as they are available, and appreciate
your patience and support as we deal with
this unprecedented challenge.
I’d like to speak with you now for a few
moments about a topic that has been at the
forefront of our national dialogue, and right
here in our own community.
As our society grapples with critical issues
of systemic racism and race relations, one
aspect of our own institutional history that
we have reexamined is the naming of three
buildings on our campus that were themselves
renamed over 100 years ago to honor individuals
who fought for the Confederacy: Jackson, Ashby,
and Maury Halls.
Much has changed since those renamings occurred
in the early 20th Century.
We evolved into a comprehensive and fully
co-educational institution that welcomes students
from all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic
backgrounds.
As an institution of higher education, our
mission includes a responsibility to change
and evolve in ways that reflect the needs
and circumstances of our society and our people.
In other words, change is built into our DNA,
just as it is built into the DNA of our nation.
Because we are an educational institution,
how we change matters as well as what we change.
In dealing with significant issues, we have
a responsibility to model a process in which
we seek first to educate and to listen, and
then to make decisions and act.
That process, while messy and painful at times,
is at the heart of what it means to be a university.
It allows different perspectives to be heard
and examined, but it also allows for action.
This is also the essence of what it means
to be a democratic society.
We have followed that process in this instance,
building on work that we initiated some time
ago through the leadership of the Task Force
on Inclusion.
The History and Context working group of that
task force shared important research on the
names and context of our buildings on campus.
That information has in turn been shared with
our entire University community, and we have
provided an opportunity for every member of
our community to learn, reflect, and be heard.
That process has served its intended purpose.
We have heard from thousands of people who
have shared their thoughts and perspectives.
Indeed, many people have shared that they
learned about the history and context of these
buildings for the first time through this
process, and noted that this learning has
caused them to reflect and change their minds.
In other words, our university has modeled
its very purpose and mission.
We’ve provided that opportunity for listening,
but leadership also requires action.
And that time has come.
With the full support of the senior administrative
team at JMU, today I want to share that I
will bring to the Board of Visitors a strong
recommendation to remove the names of Confederate
military leaders from these three buildings,
effective immediately.
We are recommending a two-step process.
First, we would remove the building names
immediately.
These buildings would then be given temporary,
non-honorific designations in order for our
community to follow an inclusive process over
the coming academic year with regard to new
names.
This recommendation is supported by the voices
of our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and
community members—who have overwhelmingly
spoken out in favor of changing these building
names.
As many have noted, these names reflected
a cause that would have preserved the institution
of slavery and dismantled the Union set up
by the Constitution.
We know that these names are a painful reminder
of a history of oppression, and that they
send an unwelcoming message to Black students,
faculty and staff in particular.
That is not who we are or who we want to be.
We embrace values of diversity, inclusion,
and equity, and we know that we become a better
and stronger educational institution as we
strive to live out those values.
Based on thoughtful conversations with every
board member, I am confident that the board
will support this recommendation as well.
Accordingly, we are working with the board
now to schedule a special session this summer
to address this issue.
In making this recommendation, I want to acknowledge
that there are of course dissenting views,
including some who argue that such a change
will cause us to ignore or forget our own
history.
Understanding and sharing our history is indeed
also a part of our educational mission.
Accordingly, we will not forget or ignore
that history—but we will put it into an
educational context.
As we move forward, we will describe the history
of these buildings and their names over the
years through internal building signage, QR
Codes, and our website.
Speaking of history, we have received a number
of inquiries from alumni and friends of the
university asking whether removing James Madison
from the name of the institution is under
active consideration.
It is not.
It is certainly true that James Madison himself
owned slaves during his lifetime, and as an
institution we have taken important steps
to tell the full history of Madison and of
his times.
We recognize his flaws as well as his virtues—a
combination that describes all of us, and
our times as well as his.
But that is not the reason why his legacy
is honored through the name of this university.
The university itself was renamed for James
Madison because he is internationally recognized
as the Father of the US Constitution and the
primary author of the Bill of Rights, which
have served as the very framework for democracy
in our country and as a model for nations
all around the world.
Indeed, without Madison’s life work, we
might not be able to have this conversation
today.
This legacy is also critical to our DNA as
a nation, and to our DNA as an educational
institution in which we value freedom of expression.
That legacy is not just about history.
Madison and his colleagues knew that their
new nation was imperfect, and they developed
a system built on the assumption that every
ensuing generation would need to continue
the hard work of building a more just society
that reflects the ideal embodied in the preamble
to the Constitution: We the People of the
United States, in order to form a more perfect
Union.
That is the high calling that challenges and
inspires us now.
There is much hard work to be done, and it
will take much more than changing the names
of buildings.
As a university, that means that we must all
continue to listen, learn, and act—and to
treat one another with respect as we engage
in this hard work together.
These are extremely stressful times for us
all, but as we live out our motto of “Being
the Change,” we also have an opportunity
and a responsibility to call upon the better
angels of our nature—as Abraham Lincoln
implored the nation many years ago.
It matters both what we do, and how we do
it.
As we move forward we might ask ourselves,
how will history judge us?
How will people one hundred years from now
look back on how we have treated one another,
how we worked together, and what we accomplished?
I am confident that we are up to the task,
and I ask all members of our community to
join in this important work.
Thank you for your energy, your commitment,
and your dedication.
Stay well.
