In Aug. 2020, the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee created a list of recommendations and plans for Wofford to become a more equitable institution for all persons. Arguably, one of the more prevalent issues on the list was the renaming of the residence halls to honor people that truly represent what Wofford stands for.
The JEDI recommendation reads exactly as follows: “Adopt a naming system for current and future residence halls purposefully chosen to emphasize Wofford’s common history and community.”
Ever since the list of recommendations was presented to the President and the Wofford College Board of Trustees in May 2021, there has been talk about a response and what the morally correct but business-minded action was.
The board decided to respond and stated that there has been progress made on the issue with the following statement: “The Office of Marketing and Communications is working on a proposal for new exterior and interior campus building signs and recognition areas.”
It is after this that they declare the “next steps” to be: “When combined with Recommendations 4 and 5, the Board accepts and expands on Recommendation 1 and will form an ad hoc committee to examine in greater detail the college’s history and the names of all buildings that are named honorifically (without donor funding). The committee will then propose to the Board a plan for illuminating a more accurate and full history of the college as well as recommendations for using the names of buildings to emphasize Wofford’s common history and community.”
The faculty has, for this reason, created a response to the Board and its statement, carefully written in Oct. 2021.
“I agreed to collaborate in writing a response to the Board of Trustees’s ‘Review of Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion Recommendations’ with my esteemed colleagues because I believe that Wofford as an institution needs to send an unequivocal message to the students, faculty, staff, alumni and the Spartanburg community that it is committed to acknowledging the racism of its past,” said Julie Sexeny, professor of English and contributing writer to the statement. “You can’t claim to be anti-racist in the present or the future if you aren’t able to recognize your past failings, your previous inhumane beliefs and actions, your own racist history.”
It is for this and many other reasons that faculty members have decided to act and take a stand. Those who have collaborated to form this statement include Professors Mark Byrnes, Bill DeMars, Sally Hitchmough, Ryan Johnson, Kim Rostan, Julie Sexeny and Katherine Valde.
The faculty’s response to the Board includes a detailed and researched explanation of why the formation of a committee for the execution of Recommendation 1 may be a detriment to the progress that needs to be made at Wofford.
“Expeditiously renaming Shipp, Wightman and Carlisle residence halls is in the interest of current and future students, who deserve a campus whose building and monuments reflect an inclusive and just account of our shared history,” the statement reads.
Forming a committee slows down this process and could lend the impression to that this mission is not the college’s top priority.
The faculty statement also makes it clear that this renaming of the building is not an attempt to erase any historical or cultural values that the college was built upon, as it brings it back to its strong Methodist ties: “Renaming the three residence halls in question, at the students’ request, is an open and clear indication that Wofford College is making a concerted effort to wrestle with its past and to bring its future into alignment with the mission of the college and the tenets of the Methodist tradition.”
“It’s been said more eloquently elsewhere, so I’ll just repeat — unless we acknowledge the racism of the past we can’t move forward,” said Sally Hitchmough, professor of English and statement curator. “I hope that we will be able to have honest conversations about the history of the college and do our part to build its future accordingly.”
It is and always will be the faculty’s mission to ensure that there is an equitable environment for all Wofford students to learn, grow and form relationships. With this comes the acknowledgement of an institution’s history and growth.
Because of this, William DeMars, professor of Government and International Affairs and fellow curator, says that he does not wish to form an opinion on how these names may affect the student experience at Wofford until he hears from more Black students and alumni.
DeMars alluded to the experiences of Doug Jones, the first black graduate of Wofford College, and his mixed emotions towards the situation.
Additional information about the experience of a Black student at Wofford are published in the college’s digital commons, written by students Alea Harris ‘22, Kaycia Best ‘20, Dieran McGowan ‘22, Destiny Shippy ‘22 and Vera Oberg ‘20.
The three presidents, William May Wightman, Albert Micajah Shipp and James Henry Carslile, having enslaved African-American people, also have a great deal of accomplishments and have contributed immensely to the institution. It is because of this that DeMars wishes to direct the readers to both a list of accomplishments and their history of slavery, both published on Wofford’s website.
“What do you make of this history, our history?” DeMars said.
Rewriting an institution’s history is an impossible and even undesirable task. Instead, the statement endorsed by 80% of Wofford faculty initiates a call to action for Wofford to change which parts of its history it memorializes and concentrates on.
Instead, there are several questions readers should ask themselves. Should slave owners be memorialized? Should they have buildings named after them? Should students be forced to live inside of those buildings?
