On Apr. 7, under the authorization of Gary Armstrong, interim vice president of academic affairs, Student Senate created a Student Academic Freedom Task Force. This task force, composed entirely of students, will propose amendments to the academic freedom section of the Charter of Students’ Rights and Responsibilities.

Members of this task force are: Aubrey Avalos, Student Senate commissioner for student athletics and junior international relations and political science major; Agatha Echenique, chief editor of The Hilltop Monitor and senior Oxbridge history of ideas major; Jonathan Fang, freshman Oxbridge music major; Jacqueline Quach, freshman Oxbridge molecular biology major; Sydni Scott, president of Black Student Alliance and sophomore psychological science major; and Benjamin Wardlow, president of Student Senate and sophomore Oxbridge institutions and policy major.

The task force will meet once a week for the remainder of April. The task force’s first meeting will be Apr. 18 at 7 p.m. in Gano Assembly. All meetings are open to members of the Jewell community, including faculty, staff, students and administration. The amendments proposed by this task force will be presented to William Jewell College’s governing bodies for approval. 

The task force was created in direct response to the controversy between the Slavery Memory Justice Project (SMJP) and the Racial Reconciliation Commission (RRC) over academic freedom. More specifically, the task force seeks to give a clear and unambiguous account of the rights of students in the hopes of preventing further disputes over the precise nature of such rights.

On Feb. 27, Rodney Smith, vice president for access and engagement and chair of the Racial Reconciliation Commission (RRC), led the RRC’s monthly meeting. This meeting was open to all members of the Jewell community. The objective of this meeting was to brief RRC members and other interested parties on the RRC’s progress in terms of its implementation of certain initiatives introduced on Nov. 10. Specifically, Smith discussed feedback provided by the faculty on these initiatives. The RRC has plans to meet with other groups to receive feedback, including Student Senate and the alumni of color advisory group. To date, the RRC has presented their initiatives to the administrative council, the alumni board of governors, and faculty council. 

Briefly, these initiatives are: 1) addressing historical inaccuracy; 2) commemoration; 3) repair and restoration and 4) creating a better future. The RRC’s implementation of these initiatives is guided by the following principles: 1) collaboration; 2) transparency; 3) continuous learning and 4) intentional representation.

RRC members in attendance included: Mark Mathes, an alumnus of William Jewell College; Cecilia Robinson, professor emerita of English and historian of Clay County African American Legacy, Inc.; Andrew Pratt, dean emeritus of the chapel; Robert Powers, electronic resources and archives librarian; David Sallee, former president of Jewell; Clark Morris, vice president for advancement and head of the Harriman-Jewell series; Keith Pence, member of the Board of Trustees; Carmaletta Williams, executive director of Mid-America Black Archives; Donna Gardner, professor emerita of education and Owen Kerrigan, freshman political science major. Kerrigan was announced as the newest member of the RRC at this meeting.

Members of the Jewell community present – apart from the Hilltop Monitor – were Rebecca Hamlett, director of library services and Traci Parker-Gray, director of diversity of equity, access and engagement. 

Two major recommendations made by faculty were discussed at the meeting. An additional consideration concerned renaming rooms is raised in conjunction with faculty’s first recommendation.

On faculty’s first recommendation
The first concerned the proposal to rename the RRC the “Katherine ‘Aunt Kitty’ Thompson Alexander Project.” Katherine Thompson Alexander was a Black woman who was employed as a cook by the William Jewell College Boarding Club for 25 years during the nineteenth century. Some faculty members proposed that the nickname ‘Aunt Kitty’ be removed from the consideration in the new name for the RRC, as terms of endearment and nicknames were often used by white people in power to infantilize or otherwise demean people of color under their employ.  This is because these terms of endearment or nicknames often reinforce negative racial stereotypes, such as the figure of the black mammy. 

The recommendation was discussed by RRC members. Robinson noted that Alexander seemed to embrace her role as ‘aunt’ at the College. Further, she argued that an instance where Alexander loaned 50 cents to a Jewell student indicated that she was economically independent and therefore less subject to infantilizing treatment. However, Pence noted that – whatever the connotations of the name ‘Aunt Kitty’ – the new name would be seen by members of the broader Kansas City and Liberty community. Most likely, these individuals will not know Alexander’s story. Without this important historical context, the name ‘Aunt Kitty’ by itself could reinforce negative racial stereotypes.

After this discussion, Smith concluded that ‘Aunt Kitty’ should be removed. Robinson asked whether the RRC members present would be voting on this decision. Smith asked the RRC members present whether a vote should be conducted, to which Powers responded by asking all commissioners in favor of changing the proposal to rename the RRC to raise their hands. Then the commission members clarified that they were voting to remove ‘aunt’ from ‘Aunt Kitty,’ though Smith stated that he would entertain a motion to remove ‘Aunt Kitty’ entirely from the renaming proposal. No such motion was started and the commission members voted unanimously to remove ‘aunt’ from the Katherine ‘Aunt Kitty’ Alexander Project. 

Smith then clarified that these initiatives were just recommendations, meaning that the vote did not officially change the RRC’s name until the Board of Trustees approved the recommendation. However, this spurred some discussion as to the exact role of the Board of Trustees in the RRC’s recommendations. Pence argued that the Board of Trustees had not named the RRC to begin with; whoever had originally come up with the name should decide whether or not to approve the recommendation to rename the RRC. Smith stated that the RRC’s name was decided by himself and Elizabeth Macleod Walls, president of the College. However, Smith reasserted that he was going to present all these recommendations to the Board of Trustees. 

An additional consideration: Who renames what?
Smith also noted that the original slide wherein recommendations under the heading of ‘Commemoration’ were listed had misspelled Audrey Burchette’s name. The RRC had recommended that the Alexander Doniphan room in Brown Hall be renamed in her honor in this slide.

There was some confusion, however, as to whether this recommendation had already been brought to the Board of Trustees. Afterall, in official communications such as the View From the Hill, the room is referred to as the Audrey Burchette room. However, Smith stated this had been done only unofficially; that is to say, the room had been referred to as the Audrey Burchette room only in verbal, not written communications. According to Smith, this recommendation had to be presented to the Board before it was made official.

However, Pence stated that it was his belief that the Board does not get involved in the process of renaming rooms, as this was an operational affair outside of the Board’s scope. The Board’s task is to set direction. Instead, he suggested that whatever part of the College applies names to rooms would be the group to receive the recommendation. 

Mathes disagreed with Pence. He asserted that it was “critically important, even if the Board of Trustees does not see naming rooms as part of what they do, [that] the Board of Trustees has to stand up and say we recognize all of this and put it on a vote.” Mathes underscored the importance of ownership: the outcome of the vote and who voted for and against what should be made public. 

In an attempt to sort out these confusions, Morris recommended that Macleod Walls and the Board of Trustees should ‘ferry out’ who should have what responsibilities in connection with the RRC’s initiatives and recommendations. In his mind, he believed that all these recommendations should be presented to Macleod Walls, who would then decide which of these recommendations should be voted on by the Board. 

Further, Pratt reminded the other commission members that the purpose of this meeting was for Smith to brief those present on faculty feedback to the RRC. He stated that he “had not come prepared to vote on every recommendation,” although he thought this was a good idea. Pratt added that votes should be scheduled to give commission members time to prepare. 

Gardner agreed with Pratt in terms of the importance of voting and also hearing feedback from various groups. However, she urged that it was crucial that the RRC vote “in the most timely fashion possible.” Further, the RRC should clarify the process by which these votes occur. This includes clarifying who approves what recommendations and how. 

On the Faculty’s Second Recommendation
Gardner’s comments put the commission in a position to discuss the faculty’s second major recommendation to the RRC: the importance of a transparent, formal decision-making procedure. 

Kerrigan suggested the following structure for the implementation of the RRC’s recommendations and initiatives. First, feedback should be gathered from as many relevant groups as possible. Then the commissioners would vote on issues as they arose from the feedback. A list of recommendations would be compiled from these votes, which would then be presented to Macleod Walls. Macleod Walls would then decide which recommendations required Board approval and which did not. Smith approved this structure. 

This spurred a discussion as to what groups should be asked to provide feedback and how. Kerrigan noted that Student Senate has plans to have a town hall on the RRC’s initiatives – this would give the general student body an opportunity to provide feedback to the RRC. Kerrigan was unsure of the timeline of this town hall at the time of the meeting, though he promised to talk to the relevant parties to ascertain this information. 

Robinson then listed the recommendations which required feedback and subsequent approval from Macleod Walls: 1) the RRC’s statement of purpose must be approved; 2) the proposal to rename the RRC; 3) the proposal to rename the Doniphan room; 4) the proposal to rename Jewell Hall and 5) the proposal to develop a Freedom Walk on the Quad. Robinson, alongside Parker-Gray, underscored the importance of giving Black Student Alliance (BSA) the opportunity to give feedback on these recommendations. 

Smith noted that, because the Board of Trustees meets just three times a year, it would be difficult to have a completed list of recommendations by the time the Board meets again. Thus, it would likely be the case that this process of getting feedback, voting, and then getting Board approval would have to wait to be completed until the Board’s October meeting. 

Hamlett then returned the conversation to faculty’s feedback concerning the RRC’s procedures. Hamlett stated that faculty wanted to understand how feedback would be gathered and synthesized and, finally, how this feedback would be presented to the administration. Hamlett asked whether it might be possible for the RRC’s presentation, first shown on Nov. 10, to be publicized so that the faculty could have the opportunity to provide ample, carefully considered feedback. 

Powers added that faculty cited that faculty groups have particular by-laws that govern their operations. The faculty wanted to know whether the RRC has any such by-laws, how votes are conducted, whether there are minutes for the RRC’s meetings and how these are published, and other such procedural matters. In response, Mathes asked whether faculty “understand that this isn’t a faculty meeting or commission, and what comes out of it is more important than the governance of a committee.” 

Pratt concurred with Mathes, stating that “faculty committees are standing committees that continue their work year after year, with different people rotating on and off the committees. And so it’s for continuity’s sake… [thus] it’s more important in those cases to have established procedures, so that the committee can continue to function… There’s never been a Racial Reconciliation Commission before and it may be that the Racial Reconciliation Commission persists once this first round of work is done, then I think it will be important to do those things. But in a sense, I think that it’s not applicable: those types of comments are not applicable to this kind of commission, although… it’s important to have the votes and the records and be transparent.”

Smith ended by stating that he is willing to post the RRC’s materials online, as well as the RRC’s meeting minutes, and calendar dates for meetings with stakeholder groups. The Hilltop Monitor will continue reporting on the RRC’s progress with respect to its initiatives and recommendations. 

Throughout the fall semester of 2022, The Hilltop Monitor reported on the ongoing issue of academic freedom at William Jewell College. Concerns about whether or not the College’s administration – and its investigative council, the Racial Reconciliation Commission (RRC) – was properly living up to the College’s own commitment to academic freedom and broader academic standards with respect to academic freedom were raised by members of the Slavery, Memory, and Justice Project (SMJP). 

Because this issue is about academic freedom, it has a profound impact on the prospects for intellectual life at Jewell. After all, what is under consideration is students’ and faculty’s ability to pursue controversial subjects and use available evidence to create projects that contribute to the marketplace of ideas at Jewell. 

An article published Dec. 16 of 2022 gave an account of the claims made against the administration and the RRC, as well as some preliminary responses made by members of the administration. In order to get the administration’s perspective on this ongoing controversy, The Hilltop Monitor reached out to: Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, president of the College; Rodney Smith, vice president for access and engagement and RRC  chair; and Andrew Pratt, lead researcher for the RRC and dean emeritus of the chapel. To date, Smith has not responded to email communications, though The Hilltop Monitor attended one of his monthly meetings on Feb. 27, 2022,  with the RRC, where he updated commission members and others present on the commission’s  progress. An article on this meeting is forthcoming. 

After two email communications, Pratt declined to continue to comment, as he believed further communication with The Hilltop Monitor would undermine the investigation completed by faculty council and its report on the matter. MacLeod Walls responded to questions; this article will present both Pratt’s and MacLeod Walls’ responses to The Hilltop Monitor. Should Smith respond, The Hilltop Monitor will publish his responses in a separate article.

The Hilltop Monitor will present MacLeod Wall’s and Pratt’s responses via transcripts. Sections which are cut-out are either 1) greetings, 2) offers to schedule meetings, 3) errors in drafting emails or 4) in one case, on a matter pertaining to The Hilltop Monitor and the marketing department which requires more investigation, though an article is forthcoming. The Hilltop Monitor will also comment on certain portions of the responses given by MacLeod Walls and Pratt.

The Hilltop Monitor’s questions to MacLeod Walls and Pratt were informed by claims made against them by the SMJP. In order to understand the exchanges between The Hilltop Monitor and MacLeod Walls and Pratt, an overview of the controversy is merited.

Overview
On Dec. 5, 2022, Gary Armstrong, interim vice president of academic affairs, and Leesa McBroom, chair of faculty council and professor and chair of nursing, met with Student Senate and The Hilltop Monitor in order to present an account of faculty council’s executive summary of the report on claims made by students and faculty of the Slavery, Memory, and Justice Project. The SMJP is a group of students, alumni, and faculty which has conducted extensive research since Aug. 2020 on the history of slavery’s influence on the College. The SMJP plans to publish its final report on slavery’s influence on the College in December of this year. They will also present their scholarly research in a series of presentations at the upcoming Duke Undergraduate Colloquium in April.

The SMJP’s claims were as follows. Actions taken by the representatives of the administration showed preferential treatment in terms of access to archival materials to its own investigative council: the RRC. The RRC was established in April 2021 by MacLeod Walls.

Specifically: the SMJP alleged that the RRC’s lead researcher, Andrew Pratt, dean emeritus of the chapel, obtained privileged access to certain key materials – like nineteenth century Board of Trustee minutes and early financial documents – at a time when the SMJP students were denied equal access to the William Jewell College Archives.

Furthermore, the College administration, by hindering students’ full access to crucial historical sources related to slavery and the College’s history, undermined the SMJP’s effort to establish its scholarly credibility.  To be sure, SMJP students presented their work at Duke Colloquium in April of 2022 and in a series of Hilltop Monitor articles, but denial of access to those sources curtailed students’ ability to speak from an authoritative epistemic position to the Jewell community.

An email sent by MacLeod Walls on Aug. 30, 2021 to faculty and staff – but not students – stated that “it is the sole responsibility of the [Racial Reconciliation] Commission to determine what is true [about the College’s founding]…” This email made no mention of the SMJP or of their ongoing research into the history of the College.

Further, comments made by Macleod Walls and Smith at a May 2022 forum, where faculty, students, staff, administration, and RRC members were present, misrepresented Hayley Michael’s reasons for resigning from the RRC. Michael, now a Jewell alumna, is a member of the SMJP and former member of the RRC. In Feb. of 2022, Michael resigned from the RRC because, in her view,  student voices were not taken seriously in RRC meetings, nor in the compilation of the RRC’s report, published in Jan. of 2022. For example, Michael criticized the RRC’s report for including “various historical inaccuracies about the founders’ ties to slavery,” including exaggerating the anti-slavery actions of William Jewell, founder of the College.

Michael presented her reasons for resigning to Smith and they had a productive conversation. However, things changed in this previously mentioned May 2022 forum. Smith and MacLeod Walls – who were aware that Michael had resigned from the RRC in February – misrepresented the timeline of her resignation. Specifically, the president informed faculty, staff, students, RRC members and members of the Cabinet present that Michael had resigned just 10 days before the publication of an article in the Pitch.  In other words, MacLeod Walls, supported by Smith, had implied that Michael had been manipulated into resigning from the RRC in a media campaign to make the administration and the RRC look bad. These comments undermine Michael’s – and more broadly, the SMJP’s – scholarly credentials and ignored Michael’s principled criticism of the RRC in terms of its disregard for student voices and its flawed, unduly positive narrative of the College’s founders.  

A more comprehensive account of claims made by the SMJP can be found in The Hilltop Monitor’s article from Dec. 16, 2022; the article also includes Armstrong’s and McBroom’s responses to these claims.
 

The Hilltop Monitor will present the questions asked of Macleod Walls and Pratt and their responses via transcripts of emails. Should Smith respond, The Hilltop Monitor will publish his responses as soon as possible in a separate article. 

Questions to and Responses of MacLeod Walls

A full copy of The Hilltop Monitor’s questions, and MacLeod Walls’ responses, can be found here.

The bulk of the email communications between MacLeod Walls and The Hilltop Monitor pertained to comments she made about Michael at the May 2022 forum. Unfortunately, recordings or transcripts of this May 2022 forum are not known to exist. Instead, Michael was informed about these comments by faculty and staff present, who were shocked by the administration’s willingness to undermine Michael’s credentials as a student expert.

When The Hilltop Monitor asked MacLeod Walls about her comments at this meeting regarding Michael’s perceived reasons for leaving the RRC, her responses did not touch upon the substance of her comments. Instead, she claimed the meeting – which was attended by students, faculty, staff, and RRC members – was confidential. Indeed, she stated that “a breach in professional conduct” had occurred and asked Armstrong and McBroom to investigate Michael’s being informed about the meeting.

Questions to and Responses of Pratt  

A full copy of The Hilltop Monitor’s questions, and Pratt’s responses, can be found here. 

A careful reader might wonder why The Hilltop Monitor chose to ask such specific follow up questions having to do with how certain Early Financial Documents were uploaded, and how they were accessed. The questions are meant to illustrate to readers the workings of the archives. Historically, when materials were requested by the RRC, scans were taken of the relevant documents and uploaded to a private folder, hosted on the Archive’s OneDrive. Access to these folders required that individuals have a unique link, which acted as an access key.

Most readers would not know that this is how research requests were completed. Generally speaking, the ways in which the Archives stores and shares information is a mystery to faculty, students, and staff – unless they work at the Archives, or have previously requested access to information. Pratt’s assertion that crucial materials were uploaded onto a public website for all researchers, then, is a misleading assertion; one which depends on the individual asking these questions not to know how the Archives works. In fact, materials requested by the RRC – the Early Financial Papers, for example – were never put on a public facing site. If they had been, then claims made by the SMJP about inequality of access would have been defused. 

Although RRC researchers have been given digital copies of trustee records from the Civil War era, the administration has denied student researchers equal research privileges by preventing students from taking digital photographs or making scans of any trustee documents, even those more than a century and a half old. 

There is much about the Archives that remains unclear. For example, one might ask how exactly ‘informal advisors’ are integrated into the hierarchical structure of the organization. One might also ask what principles are used to decide which advisors get their own key to the space and under what conditions they can use it. Unfortunately, no further communication with Pratt is possible to clarify these issues.  

Moving forward, The Hilltop Monitor will switch gears and focus on the student’s perspective on this issue, starting with an interview with Black Student Alliance (BSA) and the soon to be formed History Club. The Hilltop Monitor will also continue to report on the progress in terms of implementing Faculty Council’s recommendations in order to improve the College’s commitment to academic freedom.

On Dec. 5, Gary Armstrong, interim vice president of academic affairs, and Leesa McBroom, chair of faculty council and professor and chair of nursing, met with Student Senate and The Hilltop Monitor to brief students on faculty council’s executive summary of the report on claims made by students and faculty of the Slavery, Memory Justice Project (SMJP) that the William Jewell College administration had undermined students’ and faculty’s academic freedom.  Armstrong also provided a copy of faculty council’s recommendations for strengthening academic freedom at William Jewell College, as stated in the executive summary of its report.

The SMJP is a group of students, alumni and faculty which has conducted extensive research since Aug. 2020 on the history of slavery’s influence on the College. The SMJP claimed that their ability to present their scholarship to the Jewell community was undermined by interference from the administration. The SMJP also claimed that the College showed preferential treatment in terms of access to archival materials to its own investigative council: the Racial Reconciliation Commission (RRC); the RRC had unlimited access to materials that the SMJP had limited access to. The RRC was established in April 2021 by Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, president of the College. Its purpose is to “[find] and [express] both an historical and moral truth about the racial history of William Jewell College spanning the years of our founding until today.”

After providing a copy of the recommendations, Armstrong addressed questions from members of Student Senate and The Hilltop Monitor pertaining to the recommendations. Armstrong also discussed some of the historical background that led to the resolution to investigate claims of academic freedom violations. 

Secondly, Amstrong also stated that, apart from faculty council’s recommendations, students would not receive any other aspects of faculty council’s executive summary on the report of academic freedom. Armstrong’s explanation for this decision centered on confidentiality, personnel privacy, and the importance of second chances for parties interviewed in the investigative process.

Thirdly, Armstrong responded to claims made in a letter written by Christopher Wilkins, associate professor of history and faculty advisor for the SMJP, concerning the lack of findings on violations of student academic freedom within the report. Afterwards, McBroom explained why faculty council chose to make findings on particular student issues, and not others.

The meeting will be discussed through these three sections. Readers may follow along on the full transcript of the meeting, which can be found here. The transcript, like the article, is divided into sections for ease of access.

The members of the Student Senate meeting generally have a good understanding of the history of the controversy. As a result, the questions asked by students present and Armstrong’s and McBroom’s responses assume a certain degree of knowledge about the matter at hand. Since it is not the case that these facts have been presented in a comprehensive manner to the student body, the article will first give a history of the events leading up to the resolution prompting faculty council’s investigation and the actors involved. Clarification of necessary historical background will take place in the first section of this article; the next three sections will deal with the proceeding of the meeting as previously articulated. In total, this article will have four sections.

I. The events leading up to faculty council’s resolution

On Apr. 4, 2022, Wilkins presented a lecture to Jewell faculty in which he expressed reservations about the RRC’s report and discussed violations of the SMJP’s academic freedom. This report – which was released in January of 2022 – provided the RRC’s “initial research regarding the slaveholding of the College’s founders and the influence of those founders on the early decades of the College.” The report was compiled by the RRC’s lead researcher, Andrew Pratt, dean emeritus of the chapel, using resources from the William Jewell College Archives and Partee Center, the Missouri State Archives, and research conducted by other members of the RRC and research done by Hayley Michael for the SMJP. Michael – now a Jewell history and political science alumna –  is a member of the SMJP and a former member of the RRC between Apr. and Feb. of 2022. Michael resigned from the RRC because of her reservations regarding the findings of the RRC’s report.

In his lecture, Wilkins praised the work of SMJP students, who had gathered more than 5,000 historical sources illuminating slavery’s influence on Jewell’s history. Wilkins also criticized the approach that the RRC had taken in studying connections between slavery and Jewell’s history, including its failure to to focus on the lived experience of enslaved people and the administration’s lack of engagement with SMJP students’ work.

On Apr. 22, 2022, in another lecture, Wilkins elaborated on the claims he made to faculty on Apr. 4. Wilkins claimed the following:

First, the administration inaccurately implied that the research done by Jewell students, alumni, and Wilkins on the College’s pro-slavery past was done in collaboration with the RRC and administration. In the College’s initial public relations statement regarding the RRC, Wilkins was listed as a special advisor to the group and his name was used without permission in the College’s announcement video for the RRC. In fact, Wilkins had declined to be a part of the RRC. 

Second, Wilkins elaborated on his earlier point on Apr. 4 concerning the lack of adequate engagement with student voices and student research in the RRC’s report. The RRC’s report makes no mention of research completed by SMJP students as members of the SMJP. The RRC report cites research compiled by Michael, but does not indicate that this research was done as part of the SMJP project, long before the RRC’s report was compiled. Furthermore, the RRC’s report did not cite research completed by the student archivist during the summer of 2021 on census data hosted on the Missouri State Archives website.

Though Wilkins did not directly mention this in his lecture at the Colloquium, he invited the audience to ask SMJP student researchers about their experiences serving on the RRC. Specifically, he indicated that the way in which the RRC repeatedly undermined student voices was enumerated in Michael’s letter of resignation from the RRC. The content of this letter would later serve as some of the basis for Wilkins’ claims that culminated in the resolution petitioning faculty council to investigate concerns about academic freedom violations. Because this was discussed in the Student Senate meeting, a fuller account of this letter will be given in the relevant section of this article. 

Third, Wilkins drew attention to an e-mail sent by Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, president of the College, on Aug. 30, 2021; Wilkins discussed this e-mail on Apr. 22 of 2022 during the Duke Undergraduate Colloquium. This e-mail was sent to all faculty and staff – but not students – after the Kansas City Star published an article focusing on the SMJP students’ research. The e-mail stated that “until we are clear on what is true regarding Jewell’s founding, we cannot make decisions on how we should live, or move forward,  as a twenty-first century institution of higher learning. Perhaps more importantly, it is the sole responsibility of the [Racial Reconciliation] Commission to determine what is true [about the college’s founding]…”

The e-mail made no mention of the SMJP or of their contributions to researching the history of the College and its ties to slavery. Wilkins claimed that MacLeod Walls’ e-mail, in asserting that the RRC had the sole responsibility to determine what is true about the founding of the College, amounted to the claim that “only the college administration has the authority to say what is true about its history” – not the students, nor any alumni or faculty associated with the SMJP. 

Fourthly, Wilkins claimed that repeated efforts, dating back to Sept. of 2020, to make contact with the administration and the lead researcher of the RRC in order “to try to get them to empower the students and listen to the students and me when we explain what national best practices would require to study Jewell’s pro-slavery past well” amounted to nothing.

For example, SMJP students suggested dedicating a room in Jewell Hall to the history of the College and its ties to slavery – this idea was rejected by the College on the basis that it did not constitute an “organic” move towards change. Further, Wilkins’ petition to have a faculty forum for the purposes of educating faculty on the history of slavery at the College was denied on the grounds that this move would be “discourteous to the administration.” It was Pharamond Guice, then chair of the staff council, who invited Wilkins to speak to staff on these issues.

Finally, Wilkins also claimed that students were barred from access to key resources found in the William Jewell College Archives at a time when Pratt had 24/7 access to the archives, given that he had a key to the archives. In other words, the College showed preferential treatment to its own investigative commission in terms of access to key archival resources. 

In May of 2022, on the basis of claims made by Wilkins and SMJP students, a resolution was unanimously approved by the Jewell faculty tasking faculty council to ‘investigate and report on claims that academic freedom has been threatened or undermined at Jewell.’ That investigation began in June and concluded last month. Its findings, to the extent that students have been able to learn about them, were the subject of the Student Senate meeting, and will be brought up in the relevant section.

II. The executive summary of  faculty council’s report on the question of academic freedom: A brief history and recommendations 

With these historical preliminaries aside, the article will discuss the Student Senate meeting. Readers following along on the transcript should note that this section corresponds to section 1 of the transcript.

Armstrong stated that “faculty voted on a resolution which [he] had offered… to ask faculty council to investigate the claims about whether academic freedom had been threatened or undermined.”

Once the resolution had been adopted, faculty council began a “long investigative process” which McBroom took part in. McBroom, along with other faculty, was “elected by the faculty and entrusted by the faculty” to undertake this investigative process.

After collecting evidence by interviewing relevant individuals, asking questions of the College archives and reviewing the Faculty Handbook and the Student Handbook, faculty council compiled their findings in a report. The full report was issued to administrative Cabinet members, faculty council, the Board of Trustees, the associate dean of the core curriculum and academic department chairs. An executive summary of this report was issued to all faculty. However, no faculty members other than department chairs will be allowed to see the full report. 

According to Armstrong, “faculty council had three principal findings. First, while academic freedom had not been threatened… it had been undermined. Secondly, although there have been claims that professor Wilkins and [SMJP] students had been denied fair access to the college archives, [faculty council] found those claims were not persuasive. They didn’t rise to the level of being an academic freedom violation.” Thirdly, “[faculty council] also found that although there had been claims that students had been denied their right to present their findings or research – to have a voice – they found that those were not persuasive either.” 

Armstrong presented students with faculty council’s 25 recommendations. The document containing these recommendations can be accessed here. The Hilltop Monitor has also transcribed the recommendations. They are as follows:

Policy Changes 

1. Academic Freedom Policy
   • Examine handbook language to ensure consistency and adequate protection of academic freedom. 
   • Specifically address academic freedom issues around intramural speech and protect the right to criticize college policy and administrative decisions. 
   • Require annual training for the Board of Trustees (BOT), Administration and Faculty on Academic Freedom.
   • Review the student academic freedom policy.
   • Appoint an academic freedom policy task force to review these recommendations. 
2. Archive Policy 
   • The policy on access and storage of old trustee minutes should be written.
   • Commit to preserving the archives, following best practices, improving the environment/storage, and providing the resources to do so. 
   • Policy on archive access should be codified. 
   • Clarify role of retirees, key return, building access, and oversight of and input on policy. 
3. Write a policy for the Faculty Handbook or Policy Library about media inquiries and faculty.

Racial Reconciliation Commission 

1. Continue the scholarly work of uncovering the history of the College’s earliest decades, but with a renewed energy of cooperation among all competing narratives. 
2. Acknowledge that the previous histories left out the truth. 
3. Tell the history unimpeded by spinning a more “acceptable” story.
4. Inform the College community of the RRC’s mandate, goals, and alignment with strategic plan. 
5. Share recommendations, engage the community, and share next steps. 
6. Adopt a transparent process by providing regular communication on outcomes and shortening the timeline on action items. 
7. Remove the announcement video and webpage information that implies Dr. Wilkins is a member of RRC.

Shared Governance 

1. Issue a statement of support from Administration and BOT defending faculty rights to full academic freedom and commitment to shared governance. 
2. Specify that the VPAA leads in the defense of academic freedom for the faculty. 
3. Appoint two faculty to the full BOT for a two-year term and a maximum of two consecutive terms for consistent faculty representation concurrent with the Faculty Council subcommittee appointments. 
4. Improve consistent membership of Faculty Council members on subcommittees. 
5. Appoint a faculty cabinet from the chairs of the big four committee (or their designee) to provide an avenue to improve communication, trust, and shared governance. 
6. The VPAA should vet any changes to the Faculty Handbook after first consulting with Faculty Council.
7. Faculty Council should conduct a regular evaluation of the President and VPAA, reporting the results to the faculty. 

Culture and Communication

1. Foster a culture of trust and openness. 
2. Acknowledge the culture of fear and take steps to acknowledge and adopt meaningful change to eliminate or mitigate fear. 
3. Seek to listen to diverse viewpoints and find compromise instead of attempting to control. 
4. Set collaboration as a priority at all levels, and include all relevant audiences. 
5. When intentions or goals are not clear, gather all pertinent members face-to-face to discuss goals, priorities, and intentions to avoid miscommunication. 
6. Allow multiple voices into formal communication efforts to incorporate diverse perspectives and check tone and alignment. 
7. Check communication efforts to make sure they are forward-looking and not simply reactionary. 
8. Develop a culture taskforce (made up of administration, faculty, and staff) to assess current cultural norms and find effective ways forward to mitigate some of the cultural characteristics and miscommunication that led to this situation.
   

Armstrong stated that the administration is committed to enacting faculty council’s recommendations. This commitment was expressed in a joint e-mail from MacLeod Walls and Armstrong to the faculty on Nov. 19, the day after faculty council’s executive summary of the report was released to all faculty. 

Armstrong noted that the timeline in terms of the adoption of these recommendations is difficult to pin down. Some of the recommendations, such as the recommendation to review the Faculty Handbook, require the approval of the Board of Trustees. Further, proposing major changes to the Student Handbook with respect to academic freedom requires that the Board be informed such that they can make comments and questions.

III: On the confidentiality of the executive summary of faculty council’s report

Armstrong then gave an account of why the executive summary of faculty council’s report is confidential. Interested readers will want to refer to section two of the transcript. 

Armstrong stated that it is the College’s policy to “maintain confidentiality about investigative processes which can involve alleged misconduct.” To illustrate this, Armstrong gave three examples. 

1. “Professor McBroom and I know faculty that have been fired because they have sex with students. We don’t know that officially because unless you’re directly involved with the case, we never say that publicly. That’s in part to guard the rightful privacy of the student who is involved, but that is also – in cases where everyone is confident that there is not serial abuse – you give the faculty a chance to get another job. So it’s in part about privacy, second chances.”

2. “I served on the Greek judicial council. Now, the Greek judicial council does not deal with individual Greeks; it deals with sanctions on Greek organizations as a whole. Some of them have gotten into enormous trouble and faced serious sanctions imposed by a group who are majority students with some faculty – and I bet you don’t know. Well, why don’t we tell you? It’s in part we’re saying to those organizations, get your act together. And we’re going to give you a chance to recruit good new members to help you keep your act together rather than publicly – but if you don’t get your act together, then that can come out.”

3. “I imagine this year we’re going to have 35 academic honor code violations. I will always think the College should – and we always do – we report to faculty and I hope the Hilltop Monitor will always run an article on the numbers: how many cases, how many were convicted, how many were acquitted, describe the sanctions. But we can’t tell you the individuals and that’s in part because, we’ve always said that part of our educational process –  even in that process – is educational and to give the person another chance. So that’s elements of rightful confidentiality in my view.”

Students were confused about the examples presented. While clearly there was some similarity in terms of confidentiality for the sake of maintaining personnel or student privacy in both the academic freedom investigation and in the three examples, the nature of these examples seemed different than the investigation undertaken by faculty council. As The Hilltop Monitor’s reporter noted, the examples dealt with criminal investigations or investigations into misconduct, whereas the issue at hand was a “determination on student rights to academic freedom.” The Hilltop Monitor reporter argued that it was important for students to see the “deliberation that faculty council underwent in order to have an understanding of how… admin and… faculty understand students’ rights.”

In response, Armstrong emphasized that confidentiality was maintained because of personnel privacy. As Armstrong stated that behind some of the evidence “are actual college personnel and officers. And… faculty council made the decision… that the really important thing here is to figure out what happened and what to do about it… not to adjudicate personal accountability and responsibility.” Therefore, “[the College] cannot give an account of the structure of the deliberation beyond what’s in the executive summary… [In the report, faculty council] give a definition of what they mean by threaten and undermine; they gave a list of the people that they interviewed; and some evidence that they looked at… Beyond that, that is cloaked behind confidentiality.”

The Hilltop Monitor’s reporter asked whether the principles that faculty council used in their deliberation about academic freedom could be released. The Hilltop Monitor’s reporter was specifically interested in getting the definition of undermine or threaten as used in the report.

Armstrong responded that “[the student body] will not be given the exact principles [used by faculty council].”

Following up on this line of questioning, Ethan Naber, Student Senate’s commissioner for student involvement, asked why “no steps [like redacting names of personnel where appropriate] can be taken to make information available to students.” 

Armstrong responded that he had already given three examples as to why this would not suffice to safeguard confidentiality. However, he stated that he was “very happy to ask the president” for permission to summarize the arguments he had presented thus far. 

IV. Dr. Wilkins’ allegations in his letter to faculty and administration

Benjamin Wardlow, president of Student Senate, asked Armstrong and McBroom to respond to allegations discussed in a letter Wilkins sent to faculty and administration on Dec. 4, following the release of the executive summary. The Hilltop Monitor obtained a copy of Wilkins’ letter. Interested readers will want to refer to section three and four of the transcript.

The central claim made by Wilkins was that faculty council’s findings – as reported in the executive summary – presented “a flawed, incomplete narrative that effaces students’ central role” in the ongoing controversy concerning academic freedom. Specifically, faculty council failed to make findings on two of three claims that Wilkins made with respect to student academic freedom, and Wilkins argued that its finding on his third claim was flawed.

What were Wilkins’ three claims?

1. The administration threatened or undermined student academic freedom by “hindering students’ access to historical sources and giving College officials preferential access to those sources.”

2. The administration threatened or undermined student academic freedom “by attempting to exert control over the dissemination of students’ research into the College’s relation to slavery.”

3. The administration threatened or undermined student academic freedom by “hindering their ability to have their scholarship judged fairly by the College community.”

With respect to the first claim, Armstrong stated that faculty council’s report “concluded that professor Wilkins did have access to the archives but at a different timeline as the result of what was going on inside the archives – it was not a process of deliberate, intentional denial of archive access.”

Furthermore, Armstrong drew a distinction between violations of academic freedom and violations of the spirit of free inquiry. Armstrong argued that barring someone “access to archival materials is not itself an academic freedom issue.” To explain why, Armstrong gave three examples:

1. “If I want the minutes of crucial Chinese leadership meetings over what to do at Shanghai, and they refuse to give it to me, my academic freedom has not been violated.”

2. “If I want what I think are super secret memos in the Vatican about the role of the Pope in World War II, and I want those memos and the Vatican says no, my academic freedom has not been violated.”

3. “If I believe there are really important memos in the George Bush library about torture and I know where they are and they won’t give them, my academic freedom has not been violated.”

Students were confused about the applicability of these examples to the current matter. The Hilltop Monitor reporter noted that the issue at hand was one wherein a faculty member had requested access to archival resources. It was unclear just how petitioning a foreign government could be similar to this case, particularly when the policy of the College archives has generally been that “so long as it’s a member of the Jewell community [petitioning for access to archival resources], [archives staff] have to give reasons for not giving access.” And although the College granted Wilkins and the SMJP students access to archival resources, the SMJP claimed that the RRC’s lead researcher was given “preferential treatment” to archives resources. Specifically, in June 2021, the SMJP had first requested information about Board of Trustee minutes, but never received information from the archives staff regarding them, and only learned of their existence after the publication of the RRC’s slavery report in Jan. of 2022.

In response, Armstrong emphasized that the point of his examples “is that refusing to grant access to information is not itself a violation of academic freedom.” Further, with respect to the claim about preferential treatment of the RRC’s lead researcher, Armstrong stated that “he had different access at a different time, but Professor Wilkins was given the same access.” Armstrong also added that “the second thing that’s important… is that the early Board of Trustees minutes were not in the archives. They were in the executive office.”

A brief discussion on the resources in contention is merited. Apart from a general claim made by SMJP students that they were barred access to the archives for a variety of reasons such as the disorganization of the archives itself and the presence of black mold, there is also a specific claim made with respect to certain key archives resources. These are the mid 19th century minutes of the Board of Trustees and certain early development financial papers. The minutes of the Board of Trustees are not stored in the archives; these are stored in the president’s office. The early development papers are stored in the archives. 

The claims made by Wilkins with respect to the early development papers and the Board of Trustee minutes are as follows:

1. During the summer of 2021, Wilkins petitioned the College archives for access to their resources in order to conduct research concerning the history of the College and its ties to slavery. This petition made it known to archives staff that Wilkins was looking for documents which might aid his research. Given the disorganization of the archives at the time, effective research required that archives staff stay on the lookout for resources that might help the patron, as the patron themself could not reference a comprehensive inventory, nor wander archives circulation, as the archives is closed circulation. That archives staff did not inform Wilkins or the SMJP students about the RRC’s lead researcher finding the Board of Trustee minutes in the President’s Office, then, constitutes preferential treatment of the RRC in terms of access to resources, where access to these resources is crucial for academic freedom insofar as this involves pursuing controversial issues freely. Wilkins and the SMJP students found out about the existence of the Board of Trustee minutes only when the RRC’s report was published. Previously, the Board of Trustee minutes in question had been lost and were found in the President’s Office.

2. In April 2022, when Wilkins requested to see the mid 19th century Board of Trustee minutes kept for safekeeping in the Office of the President, adding that he wished to include SMJP students in these research appointments, he received a response from the administration that, in order to see these minutes, he and his students would have to petition the Board of Trustees directly. Later, this was revised to say that President MacLeod Walls, who is “ultimately responsible” for the minutes, could approve access to the minutes—which she did. In his open letter to faculty, Wilkins pointed out that he had first asked to see the trustee minutes in June 2021, and that between that time and January 2022, when the existence of those sources became public knowledge, only the RRC’s lead researcher had been able to conduct research in the sources.

3. Furthermore, when Wilkins and the SMJP students were granted access to these resources, they were informed that no scans or photographs could be taken of these minutes, nor of the early development financial papers stored in the archives, as both of these contain proprietary and confidential information. Wilkins and his students were invited to take handwritten or typed notes on the documents. However, this again showed that the College had given preferential treatment to the RRC’s lead researcher – Pratt had received scans of almost all the early development papers stored in the archives. These scans were made by the student archivist during the summer of 2021.

4. By unduly obstructing the SMJP’s access to resources, the College’s actions undermined the epistemic authority of the SMJP. While the lead researcher of the RRC had reproductions which he could easily reproduce, the SMJP researchers had to rely on handwritten or typed notes which are subject to mistakes and to further questioning by members of the public. These obstacles in terms of access made it so that the SMJP was in a worse position in terms of doing sustained academic research into the history of the College – these concerns seemed to Wilkins to fall right under the purview of academic freedom violations.

In response, Armstrong reasserted that SMJP students were granted access to resources, just on a different timeline. He also restated his strong belief that a denial of access is not an academic freedom violation.

Armstrong then addressed Wilkins’ second claim by drawing a distinction between controlling and influencing. Armstrong argues that Wilkins’ claims that the administration went astray insofar as they attempted to influence the students, and that this struck him as “different than… control.” “If the president says, ‘We are worried about the timing of… [the] dissemination of findings and building coalitions and support for the unity of change.’ She has just said, ‘We are worried.’ She did not say, ‘You may not do that.’ So she’s trying to influence, but that’s not the same thing as control.”

These comments were in reference to claims that, upon hearing that The Hilltop Monitor planned to release several articles about the SMJP and their research, the administration contacted The Hilltop Monitor to ask that the publication of these articles be delayed. Despite the administration’s attempt to influence the publication time, The Hilltop Monitor published their articles in April and May (the relevant articles can be accessed here, starting with an article published in Apr. 16, 2021). 

Finally, Armstrong addressed Wilkins’ third claim. Armstrong does not believe that the actions of the administration undermined students’ freedom to have their scholarship judged fairly by the College community. For the same reasons he discussed earlier in the meeting: namely, students were able to present their research at various forums and on The Hilltop Monitor. 

However, Wilkins’ claims say a bit more. Wilkins argues that communication on the part of the administration – both to specific students and to the Jewell community – undermined Jewell’s standing as a marketplace of ideas, where competing truths can be discussed and tested. This is because the communication on the part of administration, which has a great degree of authority and influence when it comes to addressing both the Jewell community and the broader Kansas City community, placed the RRC at the center of the investigative enterprise while ignoring or minimizing the SMJP’s ongoing contributions to research into the history of the College. 

There are at least three instances that may support such a claim:

1. The first is one that has already been mentioned; namely, MacLeod Walls’ email in August of 2021 that stated that the RRC had the ‘sole responsibility’ to determine what is true in terms of the history of the College.

2. The second has to do with statements made by the administration with respect to Michael’s letter of resignation from the RRC. As a reminder, Michael was a history and political science major who was a founding member of the SMJP in August 2020; she is now a Jewell alumna. Michael agreed to be a member of the RRC in Apr. of 2021. In Feb. of 2022, she resigned from the RRC for a variety of reasons. One of these is that she did not feel that her concerns as a student researcher were adequately heard during the RRC’s meetings. Michael criticized the RRC’s report for including “various historical inaccuracies about the founders’ ties to slavery,” including exaggerating the anti-slavery actions of William Jewell, founder of the College. When Michael disputed this portrayal of Jewell’s actions using SMJP member Christian Santiago’s research on Jewell, she was told: “No, you’re wrong.”

Michael presented the reasons for her resignation to Rodney Smith, vice president for access and engagement and commission chair. In a letter to the SMJP sent in July 2022, Michael states that in a May 2022 faculty forum, MacLeod Walls implied that “that Dr. Wilkins manipulated me into resigning because he was angry the administration refused his demands. She portrayed me as a weak-willed individual in front of 40+ faculty and the entire college cabinet, completely ignoring that I had resigned for principled moral and intellectual reasons.”

3. Michael claimed that comments by Smith also misrepresented her to the Jewell community.

Armstrong addressed each of these claims. In terms of the first, Armstrong stated that “what [MacLeod Walls] says in that e-mail is that the RRC will have the sole authority to decide what is true and what we are going to do about it.The faculty all heard the first part of the e-mail.” But what MacLeod Walls really meant was “the ‘and’ in the second part.” Further, Armstrong thinks that MacLeod Walls likely regrets that e-mail, given that there is a general understanding on the part of the faculty that “the institutional office of the College does not have a right to decide what is true. [However,] it does have the right to figure out what [the community is] going to do about it.”

Particularly with respect to the third claim, Armstrong stated that “Dr. Smith… would say that… those statements were inartful… [that he] did not mean to indicate the College or the RRC is going to control who receives what of the SMJP’s students’ research.” Armstrong also added that Smith had already clarified his statements in several meetings. 

The Hilltop Monitor reporter asked in what meetings, and to whom, Smith had clarified that his statements were ‘inartful.’ The Hilltop Monitor reporter argued that the issue is that no students had been present in these meetings, which did not ameliorate the “institutional break-down of trust between the admin and the students.”

Armstrong emphasized that The Hilltop Monitor should interview Smith and MacLeod Walls on their statements made with respect to Michael and with respect to the RRC being solely responsible for inquiry into the truth of the history of the College. Armstrong argued that: “It’s time for some interviews, instead of writing more editorials.” Armstrong’s comments are in reference to an editorial arguing that the College should uphold its commitments to student academic freedom, as articulated in the Student Handbook, and disseminate an appropriately redacted version of the executive summary of faculty council’s report.

Wardlow then turned to McBroom. Specifically, Wardlow wanted to understand why faculty council reached a finding on Wilkins’ third claim, and not his first and second claim. In terms of the third claim: faculty council had found that students’ academic freedom was not threatened or undermined insofar as students were able to present at Colloquium and publish articles on the Hilltop Monitor.

McBroom stated that faculty council’s investigative scope was limited to concerns about faculty academic freedom, given its charter. Faculty council did make a finding on Wilkins’ third claim because it pertained to concerns of faculty academic freedom. Faculty council’s claims were also set in relation to Wilkins claims. This also accounts for why faculty council made findings with respect to certain issues, and not others.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Matthew Parker, Student Senate’s commissioner for students’ charter of rights and responsibilities, asked whether there “is…some council or commission whose job it is to address matters of student academic freedom, specifically as regards students rather than as regards faculty.”

McBroom recommended that students “read the student handbook first” to see what “processes or procedures” may be in place. McBroom also recommended that students work with Ernie Stufflebean, dean of students, to “move [things] forward.”  

Armstrong added that he thought it was “totally reasonable for Student Senate to send a letter to the administration” asking for assurances that credible allegations concerning student academic freedom violation would be addressed.  After the meeting with Armstrong and McBroom ended, the cabinet members of Student Senate – along with Stufflebean – discussed gathering evidence from students and alumni affiliated with the SMJP in order to continue the discussion on academic freedom. The Hilltop Monitor will continue to report on the story as it develops, and relevant members of administration will be contacted to give them an opportunity to respond to claims that surfaced in this meeting.