Outreach
The Washington and Lee Commission on Institutional History and Community will host a series of conference calls in the coming weeks to solicit suggestions from alumni. We hope that the conference-call format will allow more nuanced and interactive communication than the email and feedback form allow.
We have already heard from several hundred alumni via email. The feedback and suggestions have covered a wide variety of topics and opinions, and included a significant amount of feedback regarding the name of our university. Given the number of comments we have already received on W&L's name, we would like to use the time on the conference call to explore other topics. Please email thoughts about the university's name to historycommission@wlu.edu.
In our effort to examine how Washington and Lee teaches, discusses and represents our university's history and its impact on the community, we seek responses to five questions:
- How we can improve the way we teach, discuss and represent our history?
- How did W&L's history and culture impact you as a prospective student, and as a student? How does it affect your current engagement as an alumnus or alumna?
- Washington and Lee has the least diverse student body among peer institutions, which contributes to the choice of highly qualified, admitted students of all backgrounds to attend other universities. How might we increase diversity within the student body?
- Are there any spaces (buildings, places, objects) on our campus, or any content on the website or in our publications, that are inconsistent with W&L's core values of honor, integrity, civility and citizenship in a global and diverse society?
- What traditions are important to maintain as part of the W&L experience?
We are starting with four conference calls. Each call will allow for up to 20 speakers and an unlimited number of listen-only participants. We are asking both speakers and listeners to sign up in advance so that we can manage each call. If there is sufficient demand, we will schedule additional calls.
Please note the following:
- The calls will be moderated by a third-party hosting company. Each speaker will have up to three minutes to share their ideas. At the end of three minutes, the speaker's line will be closed, and the next speaker's line will be opened. Please plan your comments accordingly.
- Several members of the commission will be on the call. However, any comments or responses from committee members will be intentionally short, so that we can hear from as many speakers as possible.
- The calls will be recorded. If you are not able to participate, but would like to listen to a recording, the recordings will be posted to the commission's website.