University board work is often forward focused. We spend most of our time thinking strategically about where our institutions might be years down the road. A less tangible element of our fiduciary responsibility, yet no less important, is to protect and enhance our school’s reputation and legacy—at times, a complicated balance between honoring some of our traditions and eschewing others that don’t align with our mission, vision, and values.
For a number of schools, especially those founded prior to the American Revolution like the College of William & Mary, that legacy unfortunately includes a long history of racial injustice. Several colleges and universities, including my own, have grappled with this painful part of their past, notably Georgetown, Yale, and the University of Virginia. The way in which each institution is addressing this history has been tailored to its specific community. For all of us, the focus on this aspect of the past was initiated by students and carried through by engaged trustees.
For William & Mary this painful history is even more complex. Our campus is just 20 miles from where the first enslaved Africans were brought to the English colonies in 1619. Our earliest buildings were constructed by these men and women. In addition to the enslaved living and working on campus, the school operated two plantations: one provided food for students and faculty; the other produced cotton and tobacco to sell for scholarships for white males. The writings of faculty members were used to justify slavery and states’ rights and, decades later, to rationalize Jim Crow laws and racial segregation.
As the board chair (or “rector” as we refer to it in Virginia), I am sometimes asked why we keep talking about our history with slavery; it’s so far in the past and none of us were part of it. We don’t subscribe to those prejudices today. While that may be true, the reality is that despite much talk, we are just beginning to recognize the lasting and continuing effects that slavery and segregation have played. As William Faulkner noted in Requiem for a Nun, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” In order to contextualize the environment in which we live today, including how it affects higher education, we must understand where we have been and what we have done. And, as we do, boards must apply the same level of accountability and responsibility that we desire to see throughout our institutions.
This required individual trustee leadership and a board-driven mandate. A decade ago, our board predecessors acknowledged the university’s shameful role and launched a 10-year journey of racial reconciliation. That initiative, incredibly well led by expert faculty members and with significant support from the president and community, not only unearthed the forgotten stories of William & Mary’s first enslaved people, it allowed for education and dialogue about the impact of that legacy on our present and future. Dubbed “The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation” after the only name legible of the first enslaved, the project resulted in changes to policies and building names, many campuswide discussions, and a formal board apology for William & Mary’s role in slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow laws. This spring, the president selected a concept from more than 80 submissions for a fitting campus memorial to the enslaved persons who worked and lived at William & Mary, and the board matched contributions raised for this effort.
As a university community, our responsibility here was to recognize the role that we played in perpetuating racial discrimination, forthrightly apologize for that role, and begin a process to repair the damage where appropriate. This work requires board leadership and support, both inside and outside the board room. Confronting issues related to a school’s past—whether 10 years ago or 326 years ago—stirs a great deal of passion and controversy, especially when these issues illuminate aspects of history that are painful and immoral. As trustees, we must model the behavior we expect of others. When our legacy does not align with our mission and values, we are responsible for leading our community in the essential work of self-examination, acknowledgment, sincere contrition, and the creation of a path toward reconciliation and repair.
John E. Littel, JD, is the rector of the College of William & Mary.
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