Task force to hold its first meeting Thursday to
plan public forums for community input
MURFREESBORO — Fifteen people, including state Sen. Bill Ketron
and
State Historian Carroll Van West, will serve
as members of the task force that will consider whether to change the name of
MTSU’s Forrest Hall.
The task force, led by Derek
Frisby, a faculty member in the Global Studies and Cultural Geography
department, will hold its first meeting at 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, in room
220 of the Student Union Building. The task force’s meetings are open to the
public.
Frisby said Thursday’s session would
include planning of forums for public input and feedback, as well as a schedule
for future meetings of the task force.
A campus parking map is available
at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParking2015-16. Off-campus visitors attending the meeting should
obtain a special one-day permit from MTSU’s Office of Parking and
Transportation at http://www.mtsu.edu/parking/visit.php.
The university announced in June
that it would engage the community on the name of the campus building that
houses MTSU’s Army Reserve Officer Training Corps program and is named after
Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. The decision came following a mass
shooting at a historically black South Carolina church that prompted a national
discussion about Confederate iconography on public property.
Forrest, a Confederate officer
praised for his tactical methods, has also drawn attention recently because of
his early ties to the birth of the Ku Klux Klan. A state of Tennessee
historical panel is reviewing whether a bust of Forrest should be removed from
the State Capitol.
The MTSU task force includes
faculty, alumni and student representation, as well as community members. Visit
http://mtsu.edu/forresthall/ for more information and to give feedback.
Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, is a 1976
graduate of MTSU and, in 1991, was named a distinguished alumnus. MTSU
Athletics recently recognized him for his role as a co-founder of the Blue
Raiders Athletics Association.
MTSU professor Van West, director
of the university’s Center for Historic Presentation, is co-chair of the
Tennessee Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission and director of the Tennessee
Civil War National Heritage Area.
Van West will serve as a non-voting
resource consultant to Frisby, who has authored numerous articles and essays
dealing with Tennessee’s Civil War occupation and serves as a historical
consultant to ROTC programs and National Guard units in and near Middle
Tennessee.
Other members of the task force
include:
- Tony Beard, an alumni representative and president of the MTSU
Alumni Association;
- Leonard Brown, a student representative and a political science
junior;
- Tom Clark, a community representative;
- Mark Doyle, a faculty representative and an associate professor
of history;
- Tricia Farwell, president of the MTSU Faculty Senate and faculty
regent at the Tennessee Board of Regents;
- Mike Liles, a community representative;
- Grant Marshall, a student representative and a freshman majoring
in organizational communication;
- The Rev. James McCarroll, a community representative;
- Erynn Murray, a student
representative and vice president of the MTSU Graduate Student Association;
- David Otts, a faculty representative and professor in the
University College;
- Lindsay Pierce, a student representative and president of the
MTSU Student Government Association;
- Barbara Turnage, a faculty representative and professor of social
work;
- Brian Walsh, an alumni representative
MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee
said the panel has been asked to recommend whether the building should be
renamed; retain the name but with added historical perspective; or recommend
that no action or change is warranted. TBR would have to approve any
recommended name change and the university is also researching whether other
state authorities would have to give approval as well.
Forrest Hall was built in 1954 to
house the ROTC program, but wasn't dedicated until 1958, when the name became
official. University leaders at the time chose the name because of Forrest's
notoriety as a military tactical genius and his ties to the Middle Tennessee
region.
Debate about Forrest rose
periodically through the civil rights era and beyond, with the university
removing a 600-pound bronze medallion of Forrest from the Keathley University
Center in 1989. Opposition to the name of Forrest Hall didn't reach its height
until 2006-07, when a number of students petitioned to have the name removed
because of Forrest's ties to the Klan.
Others supported keeping the name.
A series of public forums were held, with the university deciding to keep the
name after the Student Government Association rescinded an earlier request to
consider a name change and African-American student groups informed university
leaders that such a name change was not a priority for them at that time.
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