The Talented Tenth held a protest outside of the Student Union Building on Tuesday afternoon to express grievances with University President Sidney McPhee’s delay in requesting the Tennessee Historical Commission consider a name change of Forrest Hall.
The university sent a letter to the Tennessee Historical Commission last week to inform them of the university’s “intent to file a Petition for Waiver regarding Forrest Hall.” The letter comes three months after the Tennessee Board of Regents unanimously approved the change and five months after the Forrest Hall Task Force recommended a renaming.
Tuesday’s protest, the fifth protest on campus since 2015, attracted approximately 30 students who discussed the origin of Forrest Hall, the president’s role in the renaming process and other race-related issues among the student body.
Students expressed their frustrations with the duration of the Forrest Hall fight, blaming the university for the length of the renaming process.
“I’ve been to all three [Forrest Hall Task Force] forums and I think it was just disgusting that President McPhee made us debate white supremacy in 2016,” one student shouted among the crowd.
McPhee told Sidelines on Tuesday that the university had been preparing to make the request since the TBR accepted the recommendation on June 23.
McPhee said that he and the TBR “just wanted to do this right.” The university and TBR have to follow the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act to file a request and get a two-thirds majority vote from the commission in favor of the name change.
McPhee said the university plans to request the change officially in time for the February 2017 meeting of the Tennessee Historical Commission.
With the university’s impending disenfranchisement from the TBR, McPhee says he is not sure if the future governing board of the university will require another step of approval.