Fall 2023 Engagement Opportunities

This message was shared by Michele Gillespie, Provost and Presidential Endowed Chair of Southern History, and José Villalba, Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Professor of Counseling, on Sept. 7, 2023.

Dear members of the Wake Forest community: 

We write as co-chairs of the Campus Memorialization Steering Committee inviting you to engage in an important set of upcoming conversations about what it means to remember and honor Wake Forest’s historical ties to slavery with a campus memorial. 

As announced last April, and with support of the Board of Trustees, President Wente has launched an effort to create a campus memorial to remember and honor the humanity of the enslaved men, women and children who worked for or were sold to benefit the University. 

This work will be led by the Campus Memorialization Steering Committee, which includes faculty, staff, students, and alumni whose critical expertise and perspectives will help guide this important effort, on behalf of our memorial design partner, Baskervill. Baskervill was selected by the University to lead a community-engaged memorial design process — with guidance and direction from our steering committee — based on their impressive expertise and distinguished commitment to a community-engaged process.   

We have organized opportunities for any member of our campus community to join the discussion and invite and encourage you to attend. Please click here to register for one of the open forum sessions listed on this page. In addition, we will hold intentional outreach sessions with representative campus organizations. 

Thank you and we look forward to engaging with you.