12:58:05 Is it a different link because I couldn't find it so I came in on the general one will come in the general one I'll find it. I'll find you. Your permissions are assigned by your email, so that's why I thought you use the email you can use any link.
12:58:22 Okay. Oh, that's good.
12:58:23 But I wasn't sure and I was having trouble finding the original message so
12:58:29 you're good to go.
12:58:31 Okay, I'm going to hit the record
12:58:36 and begin the webinar.
13:00:07 Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to session 20 conflict in the Commonwealth, discovering and disseminating racist content in Virginia college here books.
13:00:20 Just a few logistical things before we begin, will be utilizing the live transcript for the session for accessibility purposes. If you would like to hide the subtitles, simply click live transcript button at the bottom of your application, and then select
13:00:38 hide subtitle.
13:00:40 And if your zoom application is not maximized. You may need to click on the three dots, which is the more icon to turn off the subtitles.
13:00:50 Please use the q amp a feature to pose questions to the panel.
13:00:54 I will relay those questions to the panelists. After their presentations during the discussion session.
13:01:01 Now, now let's begin.
13:01:04 I'm bring the gun associate University Librarian for Special Collections and preservation at the University of Virginia library.
13:01:11 And I want to begin by thanking the conference organizers for their persistence and bringing this meeting to fruition and to the panelists who joined me today.
13:01:22 I especially want to acknowledge and thank Stephen Bachmann's role in bringing the session together and keeping us focused over the course of these many months, though Stephen isn't here with us today he has pre recorded his presentation and we're grateful
13:01:40 to him for doing that. So a little bit of context for the session.
13:01:44 On Friday, February 1 2019, a website called Big League politics posted an image of a page from the 1984 Eastern Virginia medical school yearbook. It was the page of current Virginia Governor Ralph Ralph Northam, and it contained two men, one in blackface
13:02:04 in the other in a kkk robe, being that the image was from Northam page, one of the two men was assumed to be him.
13:02:14 After confirming the authenticity of the yearbook image. The Washington Post broke the story, nationally, and it reported the mini calls for the governor to step down from his position.
13:02:27 The Virginia state legislators Black Caucus issued a statement that is in part, and I quote, these pictures, rip off the Gabs of an excruciating Lee painful history and ri piercing reminder of the this nation's sins.
13:02:44 Those who would excuse the pictures are just as culpable in quote.
13:02:49 The following day, on February 2, while the story continue to spread and calls for the governor to resign grew and volume. The Post published an article by Princeton, Assistant Professor of History railing Barnes, who offered context for blackface minstrelsy
13:03:07 and its connection with Northern
13:03:11 Virginia and the larger cultural and historical landscape.
13:03:15 She noted that minstrel shows featured quote fictionalized black fleet blackface slaves and their Klansmen counterparts to sustain Virginia's infrastructure and segregated economy, as well as to inculcate new generations into a form of white supremacy
13:03:35 associated with collegiality school spirit and patriotism, in quote.
13:03:42 Professor Barnes went on to say that these displays quote worse so central to civic, and campus life in 20th century America that it's hard to find a university yearbook without a black faced image in quote Northants page in his medical school yearbook
13:03:59 featuring two men, again, one in blackface and the other dressed as a kkk terrorist propelled many colleges and universities in Virginia.
13:04:07 To begin, audits of their yearbooks our panelists will describe the motivations behind the audits at their institutions, how they accomplished, their tasks.
13:04:19 What they discovered how they presented their findings to the public, and how this controversy may have caused archivists to question their own collection management decisions.
13:04:31 Our first panelist, though not here in person is here with us via a pre recorded video is Steven Bookman Steve is the university archivist at Old Dominion University.
13:04:41 He began his career in University Archives, while at the College of William and Mary.
13:04:47 Steve has held archival positions at the University of Maryland's archives and manuscripts department.
13:04:54 And at the National Archives and Records Administration, it was still picture branch.
13:05:01 Steve is an active member of Merrick, and has served on numerous committees, including the program committee.
13:05:07 He earned his BA in history from Virginia Commonwealth University, and his mis at the University of Maryland, College Park.
13:05:17 Our next presenter is Jody Kosti, who is the Associate professor who is an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries is a university archivist for VCU and had a Special Collections and Archives at the Health Sciences Library.
13:05:34 She holds Ba and Ma degrees in history from Old Dominion University, and she's active in a number of professional organizations including merit, and currently serves as executive secretary for the American Association for the history of medicine.
13:05:51 Our final presenter is Lynn Eaton, who is the director of Special Collections Research Center at George Mason University Libraries, previous to this position Lynn served as the Special Collections librarian at James Madison University.
13:06:07 Lynn also served at the Rubenstein Rare Book and manuscript library for 16 years working in digital collections, technical services in Research Services.
13:06:25 Lynn received her MLS MLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her MS and college student personnel services from Miami University of Ohio and her BA in English, from James Madison University.
13:06:33 And with that, we will begin with Stephens presentation, and I will see share my screen.
13:06:56 University archivist at Old Dominion University.
13:07:01 Hi, my name is Steve Bookman, and I'm the university archivist at Old Dominion University, located in Norfolk, Virginia, and today I'll be talking about a review of your book images.
13:07:12 I conducted in February of 2019.
13:07:20 For today's presentation.
13:07:22 I will start off by providing some context with your book review, provide a brief history of Old Dominion University to provide context to some of the images in the yearbook provide some examples of the main themes that were discovered in the year, review,
13:07:35 and end up with some possible next steps as a result of this review.
13:07:45 Before I begin, I wanted to let you know that I have used a few images from the your books in this presentation, and the images may be harmful or traumatizing to some audiences.
13:08:03 We're going into some of the images found during the yearbook review. I would like to begin by providing a bit of context to the main reason for the review at Old Dominion University.
13:08:13 In February of 2019, or racist photograph was uncovered in the 1984 Eastern State Medical school yearbook page for Virginia Governor Ralph Martin, who was inaugurated one year prior to this discovery.
13:08:25 The image depicts a person in blackface, and another in a Ku Klux Klan uniform at a party.
13:08:31 At first, or the mentioned he was the, he was one of the people in the photo and apologised, but then retracted it later mentioning your blackface at a different time.
13:08:40 As an extensive search conducted by Eastern State Medical School. There are still no definitive proof that the image is adorable.
13:08:48 Around the same time, there was also uncovered that Virginia Attorney General Mark hearing, and then it to wearing black face for a party in 1980 was a student at the University of Virginia.
13:08:58 As a result of these two discoveries. They were calls for both of them to resign from office.
13:09:05 These two prominent cases of potentially racist images in your books cost several colleges and universities across Virginia. Look at their yearbooks for similar images.
13:09:19 Shortly after the news broke after about the images of Governor Norland and Attorney General herring.
13:09:25 The university library and asked the University Archives, to be not to your book review for potentially offensive material.
13:09:31 The director was more of a proactive approach and not a reactive one from campus administration.
13:09:37 As it was a high priority project, I dropped most of the regular duties, and spent two days looking through the year books.
13:09:45 The books which day from 1936 to 2007 are currently available both in house, and especially collections and University Archives department, as well as online for the university's digital repository.
13:09:57 There are several gaps in coverage and easier books, most notably from 1936 1945 and 9073 to 1987.
13:10:08 In terms of coverage. I looked for issues related to race, ethnicity, gender, and other topics that may uncover potentially offensive material.
13:10:17 Finally, this project also research with the role of the university archivists.
13:10:23 While our main mission as archivist is to provide records to others to interpret University archivist are also charged with providing context interpreting the history of the university,
13:10:39 before going into the specific examples of images are covered in the review. I like to give a brief background about Old Dominion that helps to provide context to some of the images.
13:10:50 The university was established in 1930 as a two year division of women Mary students would take their first two years of course this in Norfolk, and then transferred to William and Mary, or another institution for their final two years.
13:11:05 The school offered bachelor's degrees in 1956, and became an independent four year institution in 1962, when it was renamed Old Dominion College in 1969, ultimately was granted university status.
13:11:26 Old Dominion was granted university status. One of the main themes of potentially offensive material found in the yearbooks or images of students in blackface instances a black face can be found in your books from 1949, all the way up to 1972.
13:11:37 Most of the images were founded on sorority and fraternity group pages.
13:11:42 Examples of occasions using blackface include stage performances, as well as costume parties is interesting to note, the majority of these images occurred prior to 1967.
13:11:52 During this time, most of the fraternities and sororities that ultimately college, and the Norfolk division of women marry, were not part of national charters.
13:12:02 Therefore, they were governor, they were governed by their own local chapters.
13:12:11 The next thing theme found to be your books include instances of Confederate imagery of the main things. This one was the most had the most occurrences found throughout the year books.
13:12:24 Examples of Confederate imagery can be found in your books from Matthew 56 to 1971.
13:12:27 Similar to the images of black face. The majority of these instances can be found on group, turning pages and 40 pages.
13:12:34 Most of the examples include students in costumes, quote, Old South dances, as well as competitive battle flags.
13:12:41 There were two instances of the Confederate battle flag being raised on the main flagpole looking at outside the administration building in 1937 and 1961 yearbook, which is depicted in the image on this slide is also interesting to note that these two
13:13:05 instances occur prior to 1962 all the institution was still part of women Mary.
13:13:09 The final main theme found in the your books include instances of Native American imagery.
13:13:13 Examples of Native American imagery can be found in your books from 1951 to 1962 damages a clip of caricaturists and Native Americans as well as students in need of American dress.
13:13:24 Unlike the other themes. Most of the images are connected to athletics that institution on sorority and fraternity group pages.
13:13:32 Most of the images are connected to athletics that institution on sorority and fraternity group pages. During this time, the athletic teams that were married were known as the Indians, as old opinion was a division of women married at the time that letter
13:13:41 teams were known as the Braves for the men's teams, and the bravest for the few women's teams.
13:13:53 In addition to the instances of blackface Confederate and Native American imagery.
13:13:57 There are other examples of potentially offensive material.
13:14:01 1956 to 1968, one of the fraternities organized an annual event known as the bar t Roundup, where members of the fraternity would dress up an old Western old best costumes and perform a mock hanging on one of the members
13:14:17 in the more recent year books, notably from 1988 to 2000, the majority of potentially offensive images include those that depict women in a sexist manner.
13:14:27 These include female students in bikinis or quote. That's bad contest, hosted by fraternities, as well as women and shorts for so called hot legs contest.
13:14:39 Finally, one of the images found on overturning groups page includes both a Confederate battle flag, as well as a flag with a swastika displayed on it.
13:14:54 Now that we've taken a look at examples found during the overview. I want to take, I want to conclude this presentation with some possible next steps.
13:15:02 As a result of the review and other issues.
13:15:09 First, the immediate response to Peter book review, while there was no immediate call for review from a university administration. It was a good exercise to know the kinds of images displayed in the yearbooks.
13:15:17 Second, I'll be coming do not have a potentially offensive material disclaimer online for our books for for our online finding aids there if you caught the review cost us to think about providing such a statement in the future for online resources.
13:15:33 Third, in response to the social justice movement in the summer of 2020, the ultimate Ian provosts at the request of the President, organized the naming Task Force charged with revealing all names buildings spaces and units at over to you to make sure
13:16:05 aligned with the values of diversity and inclusion as at this moment, the task force has given their recommendations to the President and the planet is to put in on the agenda for the port of visitors meeting to review soon,
13:16:08 I'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to listen to this presentation, and our session.
13:16:13 If you have any questions or lacked any further information about the review, you can contact me at S bookman@odu.edu.
13:16:23 Thanks again.
13:16:52 Good afternoon, everyone.
13:16:55 I'm Jody Kosti I would like to take a few minutes to talk about your book, the yearbook review at Virginia Commonwealth University.
13:17:13 This presentation contains images and concepts that may be distressing or evoke a negative emotional response.
13:17:33 Sorry some technical difficulties here.
13:17:43 Here we go.
13:17:44 For those of you who may not know much about VCU it is a relatively young University, it was created by the Virginia General Assembly in 1968 by merging the Medical College of Virginia MCP, which was actually started as the medical department of Hampton
13:17:59 Sydney college for the first 16 years of its existence, with the Richmond professional Institute RPI a school that had a 38 year affiliation with the College of William and Mary.
13:18:14 The two predecessor institutions are represented on the current University seal.
13:18:25 I will be focusing my comments on the story of the yearbooks from the Medical College of Virginia, MTV struggled to survive during the last three decades of the 19th century, the student experience was documented sporadically as seen here in this 1982
13:18:40 image or 1882 image, excuse me, of the student body outside of the schools main building them for its distinctive Egyptian style.
13:18:52 MTV finally produced a yearbook for the first time in 1913. Probably the result of a fierce competition with a rival upstart medical school, the University College of Medicine.
13:19:05 Located just two blocks away.
13:19:08 Students at MTV had the primary role in publishing your books as they titled The annual the X ray, a nod to the less than 20 year old discovery of the rank and rates and CD studios published a year book regularly from 1913 until 2010.
13:19:28 Prior to the creation of yearbook students were photographed with their anatomy group in the dissection lab as documentation of their student life. These images appear periodically and your books as well.
13:19:42 By the turn of the 20th century the school made composite photos available to MTV students,
13:19:52 as most college and university archivists know your books contain many valuable images, and some of the only x Dan information on student groups and activities, be sure to take note of the student of the women's basketball team their name in the lower
13:20:08 left hand corner.
13:20:12 They are valuable resources for documenting the growth and development of the physical campus.
13:20:18 And in many cases they are the only source for class and individual student images.
13:20:26 Because of the value of this long. Oh, and also the. They are my source for original student artwork as you see some examples here many in the yearbooks at MTV feature that architectural elements of the Egyptian building.
13:20:43 Because of the value of this long running publication, it was a natural choice for a digitization project VCU took advantage of funding available through lyricists and the Alfred P.
13:20:55 Sloan Foundation to produce digital versions of the MTV RPI and VCU yearbooks in 2010 bc libraries place the digital versions of the yearbooks online later in 2010, as one of its digital collections available initially through content dm and now through
13:21:15 Island Dora.
13:21:18 By the time the controversy surrounding governor Ralph Northrop's yearbook photograph broke in early 2019, the VCU yearbooks had been online for eight years, having consulted the collection of your books frequently in response to patron inquiries, over
13:21:34 the years, I was well aware of some of the races images and inappropriate materials found there in.
13:21:42 Given the offensiveness of some of the contents I was surprised that attention and not been brought to the yearbooks before the north or controversy.
13:21:51 The north of news broad and an uptick in traffic to the VCU yearbooks online over the weekend of February 123 2019 not wishing to be out scooped, the local media and students from the Commonwealth times VCU student newspaper jumped right on the case to
13:22:11 investigate the VCU situation.
13:22:14 A reporter from the local NBC affiliate reached out to me over the weekend seeking a Sunday interview to discuss the question. Needless to say, I did not agree to that request, some follow up student blog postings brought further attention to the archives
13:22:32 while plugging public documents as quote a valuable commodity for journalists.
13:22:38 Some years before I had dealt with an internal yearbook issue, the 1972 annual feature to cover image of Alfred e Newman of Mad Magazine thing.
13:22:49 It wasn't the image that caused the issue but the editorial comments appearing on the opening pages which are reproduced here at the time DCU President Dr Eugene Trapani was attempting to solidify the centralized VCU brand and relegate the MTV name to
13:23:07 the archives.
13:23:09 As Steve Bookman mentioned archivists generally serve and facilitate access to records and leave the research work and interpretation to scholars students family historians and other investigators institutional archivists however, are often asked to take
13:23:25 on this role, where they must research and report on their institutions past. It has fallen to many of us to obtain a better understanding of our universities history and share it with those within our institution.
13:23:41 At the request of the Dean of the VCU Libraries I undertook a systematic review of the VCU yearbooks. We were not surprised by the racist depictions offensive artwork and inappropriate jokes and frequent appearance of individuals or characters in blackface.
13:24:02 Here are some of what we found, primarily and yearbooks from the 1920s and 1930s, but there were also instances and the 1940s and the 1950s.
13:24:17 What was revealed and actually compiling and inventory in the index of these images, was the number appearing and more contemporary your books as you see on this page.
13:24:29 Although the media report sided black face images as late as 1989. They were actually off by almost 20 years as the image from the 2008 yearbook, and the right hand in the upper right hand corner.
13:24:45 On this slide illustrates.
13:24:49 I submitted our auto document to the dean who in turn pass the inventory on to the university administration media students pushed further for exploit exploration of the subject, resulting on two in an on campus event organized by VCs Robertson School
13:25:06 of Media and culture.
13:25:08 The library had been discussing and working on a draft of a disclaimer statement for digital collections prior to the north from controversy. And we accelerated our timetable for completing it following this one of the School of Medicine's alumni officers
13:25:24 expressed concern that the yearbook controversy would have a negative impact on an upcoming reunion weekend program, entitled then and now where I was slated to speak.
13:25:36 Your book issues continue to be discussed and points for archivists librarians and others around the state and across the nation. In the early spring of 2019 Hollins University of Virginia, the President had the yearbooks temporarily taken offline, a
13:25:52 move that was criticized by the American Library Association's Office of intellectual freedom.
13:25:58 Although there had been a few calls at VCU for taking the yearbooks down the library health fast and keeping them accessible.
13:26:09 The loudest challenge internally came from the School of Medicine. The yearbooks they asserted did not reflect the diversity or value of today's VCU. The students firmly believed they were a deterrent to recruiting students of color to the institution.
13:26:27 I was asked to meet with the representatives of the medical school to discuss this issue and share our draft disclaimer, the meeting may not have addressed all students concerns, but the Act, the active discussion of yearbook ceased shortly thereafter,
13:26:42 the yearbook story as part of a larger narrative of VCU that has laid the foundation for the institution to examine its racist pass, and the racism that has been inculcated in the hundred and 83 year old medical school as a story of medicine Christopher
13:26:59 Willoughby recently wrote in a washington post op ed piece, quote, morbid racism has a long history in American medical schools, as well as the broader medical culture, medical practitioners today are still battling the legacy of working in a field, largely
13:27:17 shaped by white men, unquote. The statement is certainly true for the VCU School of Medicine.
13:27:25 Beginning in 2011 VCU has been on a journey where it is finally embraced opportunities to discuss it's difficult past psychology professor, Dr. Sean ood sees film on the grave robbing practices at MTV reawakened interest and brought more vocal outrage
13:27:42 related to the discovery of human remains on campus in 1994 construction workers preparing the site for the university's new medical sciences building discovered human remains and an old brick wall adjacent to the university's Egyptian building in April
13:27:59 of 1994.
13:28:02 While there had been Initial reports and analysis of the remains. They had been largely forgotten when he released his film as archivists I was called on to conduct research in the archives in 1994.
13:28:16 To learn more about the well and the remains from this initial role I was asked to participate in a more active and public way in the deliberations of the university and the community, as it address this dark chapter in its history.
13:28:33 These activities led to the creation of the East Marshall street well project and the formation of the family representative council to be the deceit community, they have made recommendations on behalf of the individuals whose remains were discovered
13:28:48 in the East Marshall street well for appropriate future study memorialization and re burial with dignity.
13:28:59 important discussions initiated with the East Marshall street well project or continue during two anniversary recognitions on campus. The first was the 2012 2013 program, held as part of the Civil War sesquicentennial which VCU called the year of freedom
13:29:18 and focus particularly on the hundred and 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
13:29:24 Then the university grasp the opportunity of its 50th anniversary to host a symposium, where students, staff, faculty, administrators, and alumni explored changes at the institution, and it's complicated and difficult history.
13:29:43 Following the August 2017 violence in Charlottesville during a racially charged protest VCU began to document Confederate commemoration on campus. The university president through the Dean of the VCU Libraries asked me to compile a listing of all Confederate
13:30:02 commemoration on the two campuses. This was the first step in a process that ultimately led to the removal of Confederate commemoration on campus, including the renaming of buildings
13:30:15 to draw to a close, I would will take a moment to emphasize that my role is archivist has changed over the decade of these important discussions related to race at VCU from being a behind the scenes researcher I've moved on to be a partner collaborator
13:30:33 with others at VCU when planning programming deliberating on committees executing actions of the Board of Visitors, or just exploring University history.
13:30:43 The research role continues, but it has been ritually enhanced by my role as collaborator.
13:30:50 Thank you for your attention.
13:31:08 Hi.
13:31:11 I'm going to be presenting on the history of George Mason University, and what we have discovered in our yearbooks as well, and newspapers.
13:31:24 The trigger warning continues there will be racist and offensive images in this presentation.
13:31:32 I'm going to give a brief history of George Mason University, and then review the process and the findings that we had when we were also asked to review, are your books and newspapers, and then give you some information on current steps that the university
13:31:48 is undergoing right now.
13:31:52 So, George Mason University one of the newest universities in the state so unlike ODU unlike VCU, we are definitely a 20th century, fully like post 1950 University.
13:32:10 So we began in 1953, in the idea of having a two year extension to University of Virginia in Northern Virginia is rapidly growing post World War Two more and more population so they wanted, better access to higher education which was peppered throughout
13:32:29 the state but really not up here.
13:32:33 The first graduating class was in 1968.
13:32:39 The first building of George Mason college or university college is it was called in 1957 had 17 students. This is a slightly larger class graduating class.
13:32:54 And in.
13:32:56 It had just become in 1966, a four year university.
13:33:01 So, these. This is the first four year graduate class and then in 1971 the first graduate degrees, were given.
13:33:13 And in 1972 the college became University, and that's governor Holden signing, our freedom document from University of Virginia.
13:33:22 Apologies UVA, but we began growing, and from that start of 17 students, George Mason University is now the largest public research university in the state.
13:33:37 And it's also recognized as having the most diverse campus in the state, as well.
13:33:46 So it's grown in that way, this is cinema library or new extension, where Special Collections is also located. So, as happened with everyone else.
13:33:59 We were asked to review the status of our yearbooks, and of the other information that we could find about black face, but to put that in context I wanted to give you a little bit of information about what happened in 1971 here on campus, although we
13:34:23 are the most diverse university at this point in time. We have come a long way from where we began in 1971, the Virginia State Advisory Committee to the US Commission on civil rights publish the report on Mason's lack of minority representation on campus
13:34:41 in the student body and in the faculty, the admissions actively suggested the admissions office sorry actively suggested to minority students that they should apply in other places, HPC use mostly.
13:34:59 The vast majority of the campus students, faculty, staff, janitors, everyone was primarily white, and that was noted in this report was also noted that there was a lot of work that still had to be done, then to move forward.
13:35:18 There was a lot of administrative change after this report and things started to improve.
13:35:26 But 1971 Let's keep that in mind because that is the first time, and the only time, then in the yearbook there is an image of black face.
13:35:38 And this image was there twice.
13:35:42 Because, racism, it's the same couple was in the yearbook twice and it's not a very big yearbook.
13:35:50 But that's the only time that we could find in the entire run of the yearbooks any black face presentation.
13:36:02 As you can see this is from 1972. And this is echoing what the report found in 1971, but GM you found to be racially isolated.
13:36:17 So what we did. Since we could only find one image, and that's from when the university librarian asked us to find what we could find, and we asked our students to look.
13:36:31 We have our images online as well.
13:36:34 And so the yearbook is easier to look through it's not very, it's not extensive and there are many year books that are very small in in length. But we did more searching because we want to make sure for the president and for our university library and
13:36:53 that there wasn't any more images around that we would be surprised by.
13:37:00 We did not get any of that focus that VCU had, and the other schools may have had as well.
13:37:08 So, it was pretty quiet on our end but we wanted to be prepared.
13:37:14 So we went through our finding aids and our session records to see if there is any reference to black face in there.
13:37:24 So, the student newspaper is not online and it's not easily indexed.
13:37:30 So, we couldn't really spend that focus on time to go through the paper year by year that would have taken far too long for what seemed to be relevant to what was being found.
13:37:45 So we went to the University Relations collection and into the press clippings which very nicely Thank you earlier archivist had noted that there were black face.
13:37:58 Controversies in the past. So the first one was in 1985. There was a black face performance by fraternity brothers.
13:38:08 And so there was anger over that and they were disqualified from the final performance and the rules were changed, moving forward for that performance, but it also noted in the yearbook, I mean in this article that there are other things such as the fraternity
13:38:28 had a mascot, which was a lawn statue of a black boy carrying a lantern. And that was also included in the yearbook. When we reviewed the yearbook. We noted as Steve has said and as God has noted that there are a lot of racist images, there's a lot of
13:38:45 sexist images in those books, but that was not really the focus of the review, and it's one of those things where it is of the past.
13:38:57 And our choices to keep those images, and the whole year books online for the broader access of historical presentation.
13:39:11 So the next controversy was in 1991. Also, for charity event.
13:39:19 There was a fraternity sorority event, and it was an ugly woman contest. And so as you can see there's the image and rather like in 1985 where it seemed to be more of a flash in the pan.
13:39:32 This became a much bigger event, and there were debates on campus. There were articles in the newspaper. There were a lot of interaction and a lot of discussion between the fraternities, the campus student organizations.
13:39:50 All of that was was bubbling up and moving forward. So whereas before in 1985 it was simply a single incident or treated as a single incident, whereas the two guys were not allowed to perform in the final here, the fraternity and sorority replaced on
13:40:08 on probation by the university administration, the fraternity chose to fight that probation. So this is all happening in April.
13:40:18 So, the ACLU joined in the support of the fraternity to challenge the probation.
13:40:25 And then in August of 1991, a judge lifted the penalty for the probation. So, it was overturned.
13:40:36 And this was the only thing I couldn't find any other reference to this event so I assume that the university did not decide to appeal.
13:40:52 There was also a thing called the campus beauty award. And so you can see in 1969, sorry, 1969, the cover of the student newspaper is to the right, the student body features of man, and it highlights aspects of his body.
13:41:11 On the next page the very next page, it was the campus beautification award in the lower left for this student and this was the first award given a later award is shown above where they stopped with all the description and just showed an image of the
13:41:27 person who received that award in our discussions we also did research on LGBT Q, and the harassment on campuses in the late 1980s and early 90s was prolific, and in 1996, they requested an LGBT Resource Center, be started on campus this was blocked by
13:41:53 the Board of Visitors, and the students and faculty came together and condemned the board activities, and the actions there.
13:42:01 And in 25 years there's been a lot more support and help towards the LGBT q community that also works towards the most diverse campus in the state, there's a lot of acceptance and an actual hard work towards that.
13:42:22 So the current steps.
13:42:25 We have a new president, this is part of all of this has been happening at the time of an administrative change. So in July of 2020 we had a new president step in President Washington.
13:42:39 And over the course of the year, with the George Floyd activity and other incidents.
13:42:47 So y'all are very aware of his administration began an anti racism racism and inclusive excellence task force that's been meeting over the past year they've had town halls for discussions.
13:43:01 Student Involvement broad campus involvement. So there's been a lot of discussion about the current situation and moving forward. As part of that there's inclusive excellence planning that they are sharing out with all of the academic units first and
13:43:15 we have now as a non academic unit received our first real contextual email that came this morning, and in that email at the bottom the president referenced the 1971 report and noted how we have come forward in some ways, but in other ways we're still
13:43:36 at the point where there is not enough representation across campus, based on the information from that report, which he received from our office, and the student, the Special Collections Research Center.
13:43:50 So another way that we're addressing all of this is the creation of the Center for Mason legacies. I've included the URL below.
13:44:00 And that is, it's an interdisciplinary and collaborative research center, and it's established by the university libraries and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the mission is to preserve and exam and the legacy of George Mason The fourth
13:44:15 is ancestors and heirs and the people he enslaved. So, though we are not unlike UVA and some older universities.
13:44:25 We don't have buildings built by enslaved people, there's still a discussion and there's still a point that we are named for and a person who enslaved individuals.
13:44:38 And so the campus has really come together and is working to identify that and and show that history through this center and through other activities across campus.
13:44:51 Thank you.
13:45:04 Thank you, Jody and Lynn, and thanks to Steve again for submitting his presentation via via video.
13:45:13 Now I want to turn to some questions, and we have some questions in the q amp a and I encourage folks to continue to submit those.
13:45:23 We also have a comment in chat that I want to point out and it's it's related to offensive language and.
13:45:35 And I want to link that to the topic of harmful language. Language statement offensive language statements that that you both brought up, and.
13:45:49 Could you talk about what your libraries have done to to alert, researchers to offensive material and even offensive language within the material.
13:46:08 Well, I'll answer for George Mason we're still working towards that. So that's part of our repetitive description conversations that we're having at this moment in time, we haven't come down with a specific warning.
13:46:25 And we do have a disclaimer.
13:46:28 But as on our digital collections, we're now working on a statement to go in our finding aids to do something similar.
13:46:38 I believe that somebody asked about how we develop this.
13:46:43 We've had several drafts, when I met with the School of Medicine. I brought the draft of the statement with me and took input from the school since they had been so vocal about the yearbooks, and we also of course ran the statement through our university
13:47:01 Relations general counsel and diversity offices as well.
13:47:08 Thank you.
13:47:10 Here's a question to pose to both of you from the QA, what advice would you give to archivists starting a review of your books, particularly if these materials are already available online.
13:47:27 Well I mean it's it's good to be aware of what's there I mean I think we're going to be finding there's going to be more and more materials, it's not just your books.
13:47:38 And the materials that we put up many of them of course are older to deal with the copyright issue and they contain products of a different time and place and they're going to cause harm today and so we're going to have to keep addressing this.
13:47:59 And I would say in terms of starting a review of the year books. What is, what was helpful for us was to be very methodical about it to start at the beginning and move forward, make notes on what you're finding if there's a, there are things that.
13:48:20 If you're looking for a specific image, you're going to see things that are not of that image so you don't want to become overwhelmed by what you find but it's helpful to just make notes or flags or do something.
13:48:32 So making it as methodical as possible so that you can go back and address what you need to address.
13:48:39 Yes, retaining good records on anytime you do any of these audits is very useful.
13:48:51 Here's another question from the q amp a fee.
13:48:54 I'm curious if any of you have received request from alumni to take down or not publish offensive images in which they appear.
13:49:03 I've heard through the grapevine that some alums of an institution I work with express concern about the digitization of your books, presumably For this reason,
13:49:17 I think it might have been more of a problem if we were just now digitizing the yearbooks, but the fact that they've almost been available for 10 years we've not receive requests like that.
13:49:30 A lot of these images are not the best quality images, and they're even worse online so in some cases it's difficult to identify the individual definitively for some of the images, others it's very clear, to be able to do so.
13:49:56 We haven't had requested to take down any of the images from our alumni, when I worked at a different institution, we were asked to take down newspapers at referenced alumni in a compromising situations, at which they didn't want to be recognized by their
13:50:18 children for that. So, but other than that I haven't been asked to do that.
13:50:30 Another question, given the size of some collections, like the Virginia year but digitization project currently has 3700 volumes online.
13:50:41 Do you think it diminishes the issue to have a blanket warning on all volumes in an effort to not miss anything, or is it your opinion that it is a moral issue or of historical value to find and identify specific instances.
13:51:01 You can let me know if I need to repeat that. No, I got it. I'm just thinking about the way to respond.
13:51:13 I mean I would again say well, where does it stop the this is the 3700 year books are really just the tip of the iceberg in many ways.
13:51:27 And perhaps researchers will come to expect that there is going to be hurt and examining these materials from the past.
13:51:36 And it will go without saying or without a disclaimer appearing that there will be hurtful information that they will discover upon examining the resources.
13:51:53 I really difficult to
13:51:57 to identify specific instances because that will.
13:52:04 They're so prolific.
13:52:05 I don't know how you can do that effectively across all all of your digital collections all of his images and your content, write your letters your correspondence your notes memos postcards.
13:52:21 All of these things are going to have hurtful offensive images.
13:52:28 At this point in time.
13:52:36 All right, this is a question for either the speakers.
13:52:40 Does the presence of sensitive materials play a role in materials that you are choosing to digitize either for or against.
13:52:54 I mean I would say it's something that we certainly think about now but don't want to rule it out on that basis alone mean it's one of many factors that we consider when selecting a collection for digitization.
13:53:12 I agree.
13:53:23 This is a question for Jodi Jodi Can you talk further about the findings of the well at VCU.
13:53:31 Sure.
13:53:34 Well, wow, um, I would have put out in the chat I'll put the link to the website for the East Marshall street well project because you can read more there as well.
13:53:46 But since 2011 The university has taken this seriously and found resources to support further research into the remains. And now their recommendations from the family representative Council on doing additional research, because the opportunities for identification.
13:54:13 are greater than, even what we knew was available back in 1994 so there are some opportunities to learn more about these individuals and how they live their lives.
13:54:27 set.
13:54:28 I guess they can follow up with there's something more.
13:54:31 What can I ask the question. Sure, is a city of Richmond involved in this at all or is it just really, the University on. Well, no, no, it is not the university only I mean that was the whole bit the family representative Council is not VCU It is, it
13:54:48 is representatives from Richmond, so this is very much been a community VCU partnership, but the decisions were all in the hands of the family representative council not VCU.
13:55:11 Okay, we have several questions that are getting back to disclaimer statements.
13:55:18 One question is do you add these for every collection or only collections you've actually found harmful material in, or do you have some other strategy.
13:55:43 We don't. As I said, we don't have our disclaimer, up but I think what we would be more likely to do is to have it in the front of every collection, because it's going to be difficult for us, especially when you're doing large volumes of images to know
13:56:00 exactly what is in every image. So I think it's it's helpful to have that disclaimer in front of every collection.
13:56:07 Francis.
13:56:10 I think we've done a little bit of both, that it's gone on some where we definitely knew and others because we thought well there might possibly be because of the time period the materials were created.
13:56:37 Yes. Here's a question about whether students have participated in these controversial conversations.
13:56:47 Yes, as I explained earlier.
13:56:52 It's the students were very much involved, especially the medical students were very much involved in the conversation, and as the media students on our Monroe Park Campus took a very active role as well.
13:57:11 When the North Rim controversy broken February of 2019.
13:57:27 Okay.
13:57:30 This question is did folks create rubrics to guide searches of our archival material or basically was the approach will know it when we see it.
13:57:43 And Jodi and Lynn, specifically do you see any value in creating rubrics of some sort to help guide other institutions doing this in a more standardized way.
13:58:01 I think it's a good idea to dr document what your definitions were so that those that come behind will have some idea what your inventories mean that what what were you focused on.
13:58:15 And how did you define it at the time.
13:58:21 Yes, I agree with that i think the.
13:58:25 I think part of it, because we were working with students to help identify
13:58:31 is to to use examples to show examples of what you're looking for. That helps to teach, along with it, of your rubric of what of what you're looking for when you're reviewing it.
13:58:57 All right.
13:58:57 Any suggestions for how to navigate challenging interactions and relationships. When you have to defend and explain archival best practices and ethics.
13:59:09 And in particular, what has helped non archivists understand your reasoning, whether it's not removing offensive material or putting a focus on ugly aspects of institutional history.
13:59:36 That's a really good question. Um, I think part of it, which is the,
13:59:44 which is part of the power of the archives right, it's the it's trying to put things in context as best you can. So some of that is doing and I'm trying to go back to your questions specifically so I know exactly
14:00:01 what to say there but what what we try and do.
14:00:08 When we have classes.
14:00:10 We give instruction about what they may find to be aware that they're looking at material that was created in a completely different time period when we've created different Digital Collections we're trying to be aware of that to into to put some of that
14:00:30 some of that can be an added value right so that you can can place it in history and center it in what was going on at that time period to help people understand that perspective, better, I think, talking with administration.
14:00:46 It can be a little more challenging to try and navigate their, their interests versus what the historical record shows and what you as an archivist, are,
14:00:59 are you know collecting because you're collecting part of history and history is ugly and dark, as well as beautiful and amazing. So, in trying to capture that record to capture the wholeness of a time period, there's going to be a lot of things that
14:01:15 people don't want to see. And so, helping administration to understand that, along with the broader way of doing it is how at least we're trying to address it.
14:01:28 Does that answer the questions that there.
14:01:33 And over time, I hope some of this came out when I talked about the decade long process at VCU I mean, ultimately, it kind of gets to the point that people are just learning to embrace the history that nothing is served by trying to hide it or spin or
14:01:49 do other kinds of things that ultimately you're going to have to address it.
14:01:55 Our house system embarked on a program that they're calling history and health, that they kicked off last month. In fact, and they're just opening it up and looking at all the dark history to try again to understand.
14:02:11 To learn more about delivering healthcare in Richmond today and what may have influenced it. And so that's been kind of a powerful message and has made a big big change from, I'll say back in 1994 there was another controversy with the University and
14:02:31 I was called to the president's office and actually had to take a box of records from the archives over to his office and he was wanting me to enter file, some newspaper articles and other things that kind of prove that the research that was ongoing at
14:02:47 the university or the college as it was then was actually public knowledge and I you know I had to say Well no, I can't do that. But then I you know proceeded to tell him.
14:02:59 Look, there's some of this contextual information in the finding aid and so researchers that come to the University are going to access this collection via the finding aid in the finding aid does describe the fact that the work that was done by this particular
14:03:15 researcher was in fact covered in the press, and was not as was charged in the op ed piece that started the controversy was not some kind of secret and diabolical experiment.
14:03:47 Thank you.
14:03:39 There are a couple of questions that have come in Lynn that would like for you to elaborate on the takedown requests that you mentioned earlier.
14:03:50 How did you respond.
14:03:54 How did the institutional council respond. So if you could elaborate that'd be great.
14:04:02 I can elaborate somewhat, I can't elaborate fully because to be honest, I don't remember exactly how it was fully resolved, because what happened was the person.
14:04:18 The person had been caught smoking pot, and that was in the student newspaper that they were charged with that there was nothing that had, you know, nothing else happened.
14:04:27 She wanted that taken down. And so, there was a discussion you know my, my gut was like, I'm sorry. That's how it is. And so, but then the discussion was with the digital collections librarian.
14:04:40 And then we talked to our supervisors and the administration so it keeps going up and up.
14:04:48 And to be honest, I think we took it down for maybe for a specific time period, but not
14:05:00 not forever, but I actually should go back and look and find out exactly. It's one of those things that it took it took so long, between the initial action you know the initial requests and then the, the final action, and there were other so many other
14:05:17 people involved that I don't remember clearly, my apologies. But there was a lot of discussion and University Council was brought in through the administration of how did these things happen.
14:05:30 And what is the because you also want to be prepared, if, if there are other people who are requesting these
14:05:42 land while I have you.
14:05:45 There's also a question about at your former place of employment What did you do about the newspaper takedown requests from alumni.
14:05:55 And that's what I was talking about just Oh okay.
14:06:05 Okay.
14:06:04 Well then we have a question about shifting to instruction. Do either of you know of any of these types of materials being used in classes to talk about issues of racism and discrimination throughout history.
14:06:21 Well, the one of the recommendations from the family representative Council for the East Marshall street well project was to incorporate this with him.
14:06:32 instruction and at the university so currently there are a number of faculty members that are working on modules for that.
14:06:40 I am work with School of Medicine faculty, and do a session on historical trauma.
14:07:04 And in that session, we review a lot of these incidents of the university for the background of the medical students particularly second year medical students so it is being used, not so much the yearbooks per se, although we do include the year books
14:07:08 as part of the historical trauma unit.
14:07:13 And for us here at Mason.
14:07:17 The focus hasn't really been until the past year really hasn't been on the racial aspect of the yearbook there's their classes that are focused on history of women that have used the campus beauty award unification award in their discussions, and it's
14:07:36 always interesting to have the students just shocked at at those presentations of women.
14:07:44 And then you can show them what's currently going on as well. So, in terms of other classes, the faculty member who helped create the Center for me some legacies also uses our materials in his classes as well so there's some connection there but there's
14:08:03 always more to do
14:08:13 as a follow up to that have any other racial issues been raised through your reviews, or have you been asked about other topics by users, For instance anti semitism anti Asian themes, etc.
14:08:28 Well, we didn't make the extensive documentation on the other areas. I mean we did, we did acknowledge that and bring that up to the administration so that they would know that there are all these other areas that we needed to investigate as well.
14:08:45 I mean we were specifically looking at typical black white racism when we started the review.
14:08:58 And, and for us.
14:09:01 What we've.
14:09:03 I guess our pivot has been towards repetitive description and trying to
14:09:11 address description to for us description to help address some of those things but no one has asked us about any of this. Beyond that initial requests.
14:09:30 Want to encourage folks to, if you have more questions, get those into the q amp a.
14:09:37 Here's one for, I guess this is for you blend, it's, it's question is is GM you working with constant Hall on George Mason's history, as it's such a great question Kathy Thank you, I'm primarily the Center for Mason legacies is working with Gunston Hall
14:09:55 on the history of George Mason himself the man.
14:10:01 The study of him as a person and his history is is centered in that organization, our records or not.
14:10:12 There we don't have very much at all on George Mason the man and that has not been a focus for our collection and that has not been a focus for our, our work, but the Center for Mason legacies is is helping to create a digital collection of materials
14:10:37 about the man.
14:10:45 And this is one for both of you have to be you can feel this, how do you use description to address the past.
14:11:02 Question from the audience
14:11:06 is.
14:11:08 I'm not sure what they mean exactly
14:11:17 repetitive description.
14:11:20 That's a clarification from the question. Yeah.
14:11:28 Um, we are just launching into that right now so I don't know that I have any kind of definitive answer but it's certainly part of the discussions that we're having internally within Special Collections and Archives at VCU.
14:11:47 Yes, the same here so
14:11:50 we're in the midst of that and Liz Beckman is leading that work here in Special Collections and David how Brune is leading that in the catalog and area so addressing the both the subject headings, and then also the descriptions of our
14:12:14 of our finding aids and trying to figure out how we can best address those change wordings without completely disrupting the historical creation of the finding aids themselves.
14:12:31 So there's a lot that goes into it and we're just starting there people at Princeton and UVA and you and see who are much farther ahead. And in this work, and are much will have much greater experiences on which to base an answer.
14:12:56 This questions for Jodi Jodi, have you gotten any user feedback on or off campus about your disclaimer.
14:13:06 No,
14:13:16 they're in, in the chat that's the end of our questions if you have any other questions please we've got plenty of time.
14:13:25 But there's something in the chat that I wanted to refer to.
14:13:32 There are certainly instances of cultural appropriation and other stereotypes in the year books reviewed at VCU, and those were documented as well so I wonder if you you both might comment on other stereotypes that you've seen I know from the, the researchers
14:13:54 in the graduate students who've been going through the UVA, your books, they've certainly seen the racist images blackface and kkk but they've also seen care Asian characters.
14:14:06 So, have you all found any anything along those lines.
14:14:12 Yes, they're those as well as a derogatory images of Asians and Native Americans.
14:14:26 And for Mason.
14:14:30 There are there are some of those images as well.
14:14:43 We haven't really talked about renaming of buildings or those, those sorts of efforts and I know that they were briefly mentioned in the presentations there anything that you can expand say more about those efforts on your campuses.
14:15:03 Um I I briefly mentioned this when I spoke previously at VCU this whole decades long process. I think put us in a position to be able to make some recommendations and and have some changes come about, of course, influenced by events going on nationwide
14:15:25 but more specifically in Richmond. One of the challenges at VCU is I think VCU was ready to make some changes, but the Mayor of the City of Richmond, wanted to work with us and have similar timing.
14:15:42 And so we were kind of told we needed to wait and have the city of Richmond take a lead when it came to the monuments on monument Avenue, and some of the other Confederate commemoration.
14:15:58 So, to bide our time we kind of put a process in place. The committee that was investigating Confederate met commemoration made a recommendation to create a committee called commemoration and D commemoration.
14:16:20 And this committee consisted of faculty, students, administrators, me as the university archivists.
14:16:24 And this group would review requests that come in from anywhere in the university or from the community as well, would investigate commemorate commemoration on campus.
14:16:38 So obviously, we had a big job in front of us because I had two years before compiled an inventory of all the Confederate commemoration on campus which there was a fair amount.
14:16:52 Surprisingly, in some ways, given how small the Medical College of Virginia was and in the scheme of universities and colleges.
14:17:00 So this committee then recommended.
14:17:04 After a period of public comment recommended to the Board of Visitors changes and of course the Board of Visitors is the group that has ultimate authority and naming and a naming, and so they then in September approved recommendations from this committee
14:17:22 and removed recommended the removal of plaques and statuary and changing of signage, and then renaming of buildings which included the building where I work, the former Tompkins McCall library.
14:17:40 Although the building was named for five individuals to have them served in serve the Confederacy, in some capacity and so what happened to not necessarily tie the hands of our development officers, all the Rename buildings kind of got very generic name
14:18:10 so that there is the potential. I guess to make the mistake again some might argue and naming the building after an individual. For some of us it's somewhat ironic because of course we have some buildings that have more contemporary names, but I don't
14:18:17 know if those namesakes were everything that we would want these individuals to be in this day and age so it'd be interesting to see in another 20 years if some other names disappear from campus.
14:18:33 I had, in talking over this with historians.
14:18:42 One.
14:18:42 One. throughout an idea that really kind of resonated with me that you know each generation kind of needs their own heroes to inspire them so perhaps we need to change names on our buildings every 20 years because there's going to be a different set of
14:18:57 groups that will inspire. And then, then maybe we get out of some of the trap of be having these buildings name for people that they were not maybe as exemplary as we would have wanted them to be.
14:19:16 That's great God.
14:19:22 I think that's very helpful at Mason. Again, we don't have as long the legacy as many people there is a commission on campus.
14:19:30 Again, we don't have as long the legacy as many people there is a commission on campus. About for naming buildings.
14:19:33 And I guess it was last summer.
14:19:37 We got a request from a new faculty member who was interested in, in the process and was highlighting some individuals who may be of questionable repute as at this point in time.
14:19:50 And so we directed them towards that group to share their concerns. So for us, it's going to be more than people who were
14:20:01 large and in charge in the 50s in the 60s. And so, More of the white supremacy.
14:20:14 The racist activities are going to be focused in that time period is not, it's definitely not Confederate related at all. So it's going to be an interesting discussion point so moving forward a lot of these, the buildings were named for people who had
14:20:32 a large influence on the creation of George Mason, or who were professors or gave money towards the University at the beginning. And so now, just like Judy said one of the newest building on campus is called horizon Hall.
14:20:50 And so that is Harry bland name, and I'm sure that it's just waiting for someone to name it after and I love that idea of the 20 years, review, and identifying heroes and I think it would be so.
14:21:05 Such a nice way to have, you know your buildings named for people who are doing inspiring work and who are pushing things forward.
14:21:13 That's just me editorializing.
14:21:20 Okay. One final question.
14:21:24 Have any of your institutions retracted an honorary degree or anything like that, and if so, how do you document that
14:21:34 VCU did they awarded an honorary degree to Bill Cosby, they have since rescinded it.
14:21:44 It's in board actions that the degree was rescinded so that's, that's our documentation, at this point.
14:21:58 That's a great question. There, none that I know of.
14:22:03 At Mason, but I could be wrong.
14:22:12 All right, I think we've come to the end of our questions, and there's some good comments Simon has provided an example of harmful statement that Drexel has come up with that's in the chat and some thank yous and kudos for Lynn in God.
14:22:38 And I want to underscore that thank you Lynn and Jody and I want to thank Stephen to, for being here via video. I also want to thank our supporters behind the scenes Becky Devin who have made this made this session possible and to make it run slow smoothly