(09-07-2020 05:58 PM)62Indian Wrote:  

(09-07-2020 12:07 PM)TribeFan1983 Wrote:  

(09-07-2020 11:33 AM)mrjoolius Wrote:  Everyone is entitled to their opinions on what they like or what is fitting for this monument to the enslaved.
What I don't get is now criticising the project in the 11th hour when very little has changed from intent to design to location in the last few years. Now I get financial concerns in the wake of Covid and concerns over athletics finances that lead to cutting sports, but these have nothing to do with the memorial. Money from this project was never going to be used for anything else. Those matching funds were already long ago paid. This wasn't some slapped together memorial with little thought. It is the culmination of work that began in 2007 with a student resolution to establish a slave memorial. In 2014, a class run by the art dept and lemon project recommended a competition for the memorial. In 2018, a 9 member selection committee comprised of historians, and leaders in the arts reviewed 80 different submissions. The winning entry was picked last year. A committee was put together comprised of relavent faculty, staff, students, and the BoV. It established fund raising through private gifts and matching funds. From the beginning it was to be located "within or directly engaging with the William & Mary historic campus". It seems that they are doing exactly what the original planning called for. The thought of all of that time, and all of those varied people's work towards this goal should be dismissed a year from completion in favor of a plaque or a building name change seems unrealistic and just plain wrong.

We're just chatting here. I mean no disrespect to anyone at W&M involved in the memorial. I'm just a casual observer of W&M events. I never heard of the project until W&M posted the final design online in the last week or so. I had no input into the project. I don't expect anyone to take my idea seriously.

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I think the proposed "Memorial" and the entire project is a BIG mistake and we are being sold on the idea by W&M Faculty and Adminisrators with lies and half truths. We are told that the concept grew from a class at W&M taught by the Director of the "Lemon Project" apparently the class was all about Lemon and the Lemon Project and then, miracula dictu, they all came up with this wonderful idea ... which the virtue signaling W&M Faculty and Admin adopted whole heartedly. And the Band Played ON.

I suggest the students in this class were predisposed to considering a project such as this and were brainwashed into "approving" the project. The Daily Press Op-ED recently published made some salient points. When we were students we were told that W&M was the "oldest College" in actual operation and that the Wren Building had conducted continuously since 1693. These were outright lies, the College was effectively destroyed during the Civil War and did not begin to function again until the end of the century. The CIVIL WAR was fought to end slavery, W&M was destroyed by the Civil War - that should be our memorial.

This whole project [including the so-called Lemon Project] should be subjected to a vote for approval of ALL Current students, and ALL alums having donated money over the past 10 years, and W&M Faculty and Administrators who donate money to the College.

There is a rush to judgement about this whole project that smells highly - this is not a project that should be rushed and there is ample time for everybody to voice their opinions and have a vote.

On paper a vote for budget items sounds nice, but with how much money the school spends - and how many donors they get - I can't imagine voting on budget items would actually be practical or feasible. I will always support more financial transparency, that said, though I do think it's gotten better over time, and as a public school I think you can generally submit FOIA requests to learn more.

I don't recall the same calls for votes or mass approval when the school installed a Monroe statue a few years back...