Dec. 3, 2019 Meeting Minutes
Committee on Elon History and Memory
Meeting Minutes, December 3, 2019 (8:30-9:30 a.m., African-American Resource Room)
I. Approval of Minutes
II. Updates
III. Progress Reports
IV. Meeting Schedule / Timeline
I. Approval of Minutes from November 19
Approved.
II. Updates
A. Mary Carroll-Robertson Homecoming follow-up – C. Irons has a meeting planned for December 16 with Robin Adams Cheeley, author of the Greensboro News and Record editorial.
B. Consultant outreach – still waiting for responses
C. Black Oaks research initiative
D. Spring Events
1. No update from EJI
2. Thavolia Glymph (April 1)
3. Sowande Mustakeem (March 8-10)
E. Land Acknowledgement – process restarting, with Kiah Glenn (CREDE) playing the key role
III. Progress Reports
A. History (Denise Hill, Andrea Sinn, Jewel Tillman, Keren Rivas) – Discussed need to begin parceling out research assignments and confirm narrative structure.
B. Recommendations (Jeff Stein, Brandon Bell) – Identified 27 potential offices to consult in the formation of recommendations.
C. Website (Chrystal Carpenter, Detric Robinson-Miller) – In the short term, planned to add news stories to the current website.
D. Additional Events (Sandra Reid) – Once we have coordinated the timing for Mustakeem, Glymph, and any EJI events, we ought to publicize widely.
E. Tentative Categories of Recommendations. We brainstormed the known categories of recommendations that had already surfaced in the course of discussion:
1. Administrative structure / implementation team – some formal, ongoing role for advocates of a more inclusive institutional history (e.g., peer and aspirants’ “Office of Institutional History”)
2. History – protocols for continuing to deepen our understanding of Elon’s history and its many connections
3. Community Engagement – of the type we are initiating through EJI and the Occaneechi
4. Black Oaks – a mechanism for sustaining the work, analogous to William and Mary’s Lemon Project
5. Website – for dissemination of our findings and coordination of work across various units
6. Physical Plant – recommendations for naming practices and revising the commemorative landscape to make it more inclusive
7. Additional Modes of Dissemination – curriculum, orientation, publications, etc.
8. Restorative Justice – if any in addition to Black Oaks
IV. Meeting Schedule / Timeline
A. Meeting at lunch (12:15) on Tuesday, December 17 to determine the consultant.
B. Regular, bi-weekly meetings in the spring, tentatively scheduled to begin on Tuesday, February 4 (8:30 a.m.).
C. Irons to draft a spring work sequence, to move rapidly to drafting of a report by the end of May.