Response to the Rector’s Washington and Lee Community Letter
Rector McAlevey and the Board of Trustees issued a statement Friday denying that they are erasing history on the campus of W&L.
Yet their message rings hollow. They are saying in effect: “We’re not erasing history. We’re just whitewashing it.” They have literally whitewashed Lee Chapel.
They promise to preserve W&L history in a future museum but—given the university’s methodical campaign to erase Lee from campus—we are highly skeptical about how such a museum will be curated.
Our skepticism is well-founded. Beyond Lee Chapel, W&L has cancelled Founders’ Day, removed images from diplomas, removed plaques, and generally distanced itself from Lee.
Our question is “Why?” Are they ashamed of Lee? Are they embarrassed by Lee?
If you are ashamed of Robert E. Lee, W&L is not where you belong.
If you’re embarrassed by Robert E. Lee, you should 1) take the time to read and learn his full story, and 2) if you’re still embarrassed by him, go somewhere else.
Robert E. Lee has been the heart and soul of the university for generations. He saved the school. He attracted new students and donors from all over the country. He innovated the curriculum and entrusted the students with the Honor System. He inspired countless alumni with his example of character and virtue. Lee is what makes the W&L brand so unique and special.
We can (and should) celebrate Lee without celebrating the Confederacy or slavery or racism or the Lost Cause. Our task is to do a better job of telling Lee’s story—the story of a reluctant warrior who was opposed to slavery and secession, and who was a leading voice for reconciliation after the war—and to carry on Lee’s legacy of honor, character, and integrity.
Meanwhile, the misguided actions of the University have had an overwhelmingly negative impact on financial support for W&L. Major donors are rescinding estate bequests, and even more alumni have withdrawn their support for the Annual Fund, opting instead to send their money to The Generals Redoubt.
Unless the Board of Trustees reverses course soon, they run the risk of making W&L the Bud Light of higher education. Go woke, go broke.
We call upon the Board of Trustees to reconsider its anti-Lee crusade. Set aside your pride and acknowledge your mistakes. Heed the pleas of alumni. Restore Lee Chapel to its status quo ante, bring back Founders’ Day, and return Robert E. Lee to his rightful place of honor on campus.
Please click on the link below to help us continue the progress we are making in our efforts to influence the future of Washington and Lee. Your financial support of TGR sends a powerful message to the leadership at Washington and Lee which they cannot ignore.
Let your voice be heard through our growing organization. In addition to improvements and activities at our new Fancy Hill headquarters in Rockbridge County, your generous contribution will fund more on-campus programs, student groups and national speakers who share our commitment to the values, history, and traditions of Washington and Lee.
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Information on how to make a donation:
https://www.thegeneralsredoubt.us/support
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To: The Washington and Lee Community
From: Rector Mike McAlevey ’86, on behalf of the Washington and Lee Board of Trustees
Date: August 25, 2023
Re: Preserving and Teaching Washington and Lee’s History
Over the last few years, the university’s Board of Trustees has written to update the Washington and Lee community on matters of broad interest. Today we write with an update on the status of work the university has undertaken in recent years to preserve and teach W&L’s history more effectively.
We have approached this work and the changes we have made with a deep devotion to our core values of civility, honor, and mutual respect and to our responsibility always to serve the best interests of the university. Although some claim that the Board’s actions, including renaming or renovating some buildings and relocating some artifacts like plaques and portraits to museum spaces, are an attempt to erase or hide parts of the University’s history, this is not the case. We have not destroyed artifacts, nor have we removed all references to our namesakes from our campus. Rather, we have sought to portray the notable contributions of these men accurately and to expand our presentations of the university’s rich and complicated history in the service of our educational mission.
Our approach is grounded in the Board’s view that Washington and Lee University is an educational institution whose campus is neither a museum nor an appropriate repository for Confederate artifacts. We have outstanding museums and exhibit spaces where these artifacts are being placed in context and contribute to a fuller understanding of the history that gave rise to them.
One of the commitments the Board made two years ago was to renovate University Chapel to visually separate the original 1868 chapel auditorium, which is intended to serve as a gathering space for university events, and the 1883 annex containing the Recumbent Lee sculpture, which is intended to serve as a location for the preservation and telling of history. We are pleased to announce today that the construction of a partition on the stage of the chapel auditorium is complete, creating two adjoined, publicly accessible spaces. In September, University Chapel and its galleries (Chapel Galleries) will reopen to the public.
VIDEO: Click for a video of the newly renovated University Chapel and adjacent statue chamber.
Next Steps
While University Chapel reopens this fall, work on museum spaces, including the development and installation of new exhibitions within the Chapel Galleries, is ongoing.
Over the past two years, the university has already taken a number of important actions to expand the presentation of our history on campus, which include creating a new exhibit featuring the Charles Willson Peale Portrait of George Washington, updating the George Washington exhibit in Washington Hall, installing three war veteran plaques on the Memorial Gateway, and opening the “Setting the Stage” exhibit in the Chapel Galleries, which features portraits that have hung in the University Chapel auditorium over the last 150 years, including the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington and the Theodore Pine portrait of Robert E. Lee.
In addition, consistent with the University’s Strategic Plan, we continue to develop our forthcoming Museum of Institutional History. This Museum will expand our capacity to educate the community and the public on the many chapters of Washington and Lee University and our connections to the history of our nation. In the fall of 2022, we formed a Museum working group composed of trustees, administrators, faculty and alumni to imagine and develop the Museum, its operations and exhibitions, and how it will relate to our other campus museum spaces. The working group has interviewed multiple architectural firms and museum consulting firms and has selected Quinn Evans and Gallagher and Associates to assist with our work. They will solicit feedback from external historians and W&L community members beginning in early 2024. We have already received significant gift commitments to support the Museum, and we are finalizing the site selection on campus so we may begin specific plans and renderings for the building and related fundraising.
When complete, our museum spaces, including the Chapel Galleries, the Museum, and other spaces, will include exhibits about the contributions of George Washington and Robert E. Lee to the institution; the history, evolution and uses of campus buildings; artifacts, like the plaques and paintings that have been relocated from the chapel auditorium and other locations on campus; and many other topics, including notable contributions of alumni, students, staff, workers, administrators and benefactors all of whom have contributed to making Washington and Lee the esteemed university that it is today.
We look forward to welcoming the W&L community to the chapel auditorium for gatherings and events beginning this month and to sharing more of the university’s history through the work ahead. We hope those of you who have not recently visited campus will return soon to see the work for yourselves and experience the vibrant and thriving institution of which we are so proud.
Washington and Lee University
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