Good  evening  everyone.  Throughout  the  rain, I'm  glad  to  see  that  you  all  still showed  up  this  evening.  So  welcome. I  am  Karen  Manning, the  Engagement  and  Inclusion Librarian  here  at  Georgia  Tech  Library. I'm  so  happy  about  what we're  branding  a  black  history  month  event, and  so  happy  to  have  this  collaboration with  the  student  groups. After  all,  one  of Georgia  Tech's  values  is  students  are  our  top  priority. And  so  I  was  really  glad  to  hear  about Sam's  story,  about  her  grandfather, and  how  we  could  possibly bring  it  back  to  light  as  a  Black  History  Month  event. Sam  graciously  accepted  the  offer. Our  archivists  did  a  little  bit  of  work. They'll  talk  about  that  this  evening. And  we're  interested  in what  else  you  all  doing  here  on  campus. So  you  all  be  able  to  enlighten  us  about the  other  things  that's  happening  on  Georgia  Tech  campus. So  we  don't  want  to  waste  too  much  time because  we  want  to  dive  right  into  this  program. I've  been  excited  about  it  and  I  am  happy, and  so  happy  to  have  each  and  every  one  of  you  all  here. Also.  Thank  you  to  the  people  online. Thank  you  for  joining  us. We're  so  glad  you're  here  with  us  also. So  let's  just  all  sit  back, relax,  and  here's  some  storytelling. I  want  to  introduce  Sam  Bolton. Samantha?  Sam  Bolton,  she's the  president  of  the  Organization  for  Social  Activism, Woki,  ambassador,  diversity  ambassador, and  a  student  ambassador. And  she  has  a  very  enlightening story  that  we  can't  wait  to  hear. Welcome  Sam  Bolton. Move  this  one. Everybody,  how  are  we  doing  today? I'm  glad  to  hear  it. Well.  Thank  you  guys  all  for  coming  out  today. I  really  do.  I'd  love  to  see  everyone  here. I'm  really  glad  that  I  get this  chance  to  talk  about  this  story. But  one  thing  I  do  want  to  start  with, as  much  as  I  am  excited  to  share  the  story  with  you  all, I  want  to  make  it  very  clear,  this  event is  not  about  my  grandfather. This  event  is  about  Georgia  Tech's  history. It's  about  a  history  that  doesn't  welcome  acknowledgment, it's  not  as  appealing,  it  doesn't  look  as good  on  the  Georgia  Tech  website. This  is  about  the  full  history. The  whole  history,  not  just  the  history that  we  want  to  see. So  I'll  start  with  my  grandfather's  story. I  don't  know  if  you  guys,  any  of you  saw  the  article  that  came  out  yesterday. But  the  Georgia  Tech  Institution  Communications did  come  out  with  a  story  about  my  grandfather. So  I'll  tell  a  little  bit  about that  background  in  case  you  didn't  see  it. So  my  grandfather,  Robert  Chesbrough, he  was  applying  to  Georgia  Tech  in  1953. A  19  year  old  kid,  my  age, applying  to  Georgia  Tech  as a  transfer  student  from  Morehouse. Obviously,  he  did  not  get  in  on  account  of  his  race, and  he  was  offered  scholarship  aid  to  go  to the  University  of  Rochester  in New  York.  That's  the  story. So  I'm  going  to  tell  you  my, my  side  of  finding  out the  story  and  what  it  has  been  like  since  then. So  for  me,  it  all  started  when  I  got  into  tech. My,  my  mother,  she  mentioned  that she  knew  like  of  a  story  that  had  to do  with  my  grandfather  and  the  school, but  we  didn't  know  much  about  it.  So  she  did  a  deep  dive. She  had  to  go  in  the  depths  of  the  internet  to  find just  a  number  for  a  box  in  the  Library  of  Congress. Just  that  number,  that's  all  we  had. And  so  we  reached  out  the  Library  of  Congress and  in  the  NWACP  files was  this  box  that  contained my  grandfather's  life.  So  they  scanned  it. In,  in  this  box  was  everything. It  was  the  correspondence  of  K,  once  again,  my  age, asking,  begging  this  institution  to see  him  as  human,  to  see  him  as  an  equal. And  then  it  contained  the  correspondence of  this  school  saying  you  are  not. And  so,  you  know,  for  me  that  was  very  hard  to  see. I  knew  my  grandfather  obviously,  You  know, I  hadn't  been  able  to  get  to  know  him  as much  as  I  wish  I  had  before  he  passed. But  it  was  hard  to  read. And  so  my  first  instinct  when  I,  you  know, kind  of  read  about  this  history, that  also  I  had  no  idea  about. Before  that,  I  did  not  realize  how  much  went  into  it. But  after  reading  this  oh, also  one  thing  I  want  to  mention  in  this  box  as  well, Thurgood  Marshall  was  involved. There  were  correspondence  to  and  from  Thurgood  Marshall. There  were  articles  across the  country  about  this  case,  about  my  grandfather. And  once  again,  it  was  reduced  to  a  box  that Georgia  Tech  had  completely  forgotten about  and  probably  did  not  know  existed. So  for  me  what  I  did  is  I  wrote  about  it.  I'm  a  writer. So  I  ended  up  just  writing  letters  or  what  the letters  I  would  want  to  send  to the  Registrar  and  to  my  grandfather, and  I  ended  up  submitting  those  to  my  local  newspaper. I  ended  up  writing  an  article  for  them, and  then  it  was  picked  up  by  the shot  observer  after  he  passed, which  he  did  actually  pass. After  I  had  gotten  into  tech, they  covered  his  obituary  on  the  front  page. And  then  I  ended  up  speaking  about  this  story  on Spectrum  News  for  North  Carolina. North  Carolina  Spectrum  News. Before  I  did,  I  called  Georgia  Tech. The  person  I  spoke  with  will  remain nameless  but  and  I  don't  remember  exactly  what  he  said. I  don't  have  a  transcript,  but  I remember  it  sounded  something  like, this  story  looks  bad  on  us. I  don't  know  what  you  want  us  to  do  about  it. So  I  spoke  on  the  story, but  what  I  talked  about  wasn't  just, this  is  the  life  of  my  grandfather. What  I  spoke  about  is  this  is a  life  that  has  gone  completely  forgotten, just  like  so  many  other  lives  from  that  time. This  is  a  life  from  a  time  period  before  acknowledgment. The  real  tragedy  is  not  just  my  grandfather's  life, but  the  tragedy  of  anyone  who  has  black  heritage. That's  the  history,  that's  the  reality  of  it. People  weren't  allowed  to  come  here. So  after  getting  into  tech  and starting  OSA  and  I  ended  up  speaking, I  spoke  at  the  MLK  ceremony  last  year, and  here  I  spoke  about  the  same  thing. I  spoke  about  how  I spoke  about  a  little  bit  about  my  grandfather's  story. And  I  spoke  about  how  if  we don't  acknowledge  this  history, it's  bound  to  repeat  itself. Not  to  the  same  extent,  but we're  already  facing  those  things. When  I  started  my  speech, I  said  there's  talk  of race  getting  taken  off  of  applications. Now,  race  has  been  taken  off of  applications  because  collectively, we  are  ignoring  this  history. We're  ignoring  the  fact  that  two  generations  ago, our  ancestors,  our  heritage, our  grandparents  couldn't  attend  this  institution, along  with  many  other  institutions, and  just  this  level  of  education. I'm  here  today.  Oh,  and  I  do  want  to go  into  the  fact  that  after  that  speech, I  ended  up  talking  to President  Uber  himself.  I  spoke  to  Dr.  Irvin. I  spoke  with  the  archivist,  which  they are  going  to  get  into  what  they  found. After  our  conversation,  I  spoke  with  Laurence  Williams. I  had  a  four  hour  conversation at  a  coffee  shop  with  Laurence  Williams. That  was  it.  And  they  all, everyone  I  spoke  to  said,  this  is  amazing  story. We  want  to  talk  about  it.  We  want people  to  know  nothing  happened. For  two  years,  I've  been  trying  to  get  this  institution, all  starting  with  that  phone  call to  the  institution,  communications. I've  been  begging  the  school  to  at  least  share  the  story. Not  just  the  story,  but  the  idea  that this  happened  not  just  to  him  but  to  other  people. We  already  know  of two  other  documented  people  that  applied, but  just  even  the  idea  that only  three  black  people  had  applied  before  1961. Think  about  all  the  people  that  just  didn't  dare reply  for  the  safety  of  their  lives for  every  reason  possible. I  beg  the  school  to  just  at  least acknowledge  that  any  of  this  happened. And  I  was  sent  on  a  wild  goose  chase.  A  wild  goose  chase. And  I  finally  got  them  to  air  the  story  yesterday. But  the  reason  we're  here  today is  to  recognize  the  greater  history. To  recognize  that  my  grandfather is  part  of  Georgia  Tech's  history. A  week  ago,  I  was  in student  ambassadors  diversity equity  and  inclusion  training. One  thing  they  talked  about, one  thing  that  student  ambassadors  do, is  we  lead  tours  for  prospective  students,  for  alumni. During  this  training,  they  were  telling  us  about the  history  that  we  should  also  address. We  should  talk  about  the  pioneers. We  should  talk  about  Ronald  Ans, because  that  is  Georgia  Tech  history. I  was  sitting  in  this  room  holding back  tears  actually  because  I  was  thinking  to  myself, my  grandfather  should  be  Georgia  Tech  history. He  is  Georgia  Tech  history. Everyone  who  didn't  get  in  to Georgia  Tech  is  Georgia  Tech  history. Everyone  that  they  kept  out, that  is  Georgia  Tech's  active  history. And  the  repercussions  of  everyone  that  they  kept  out  of this  institution  is  Georgia  Tech's  responsibility. Everyone  that  they  kept out  is  Georgia  Tech's  responsibility. And  that  is  the  message  for  today, understanding  that  if  we  don't  recognize  that  past  and  we don't  recognize  the  oppressive  history, what  the  racist  history  of  this  institution  has. The  impact  that  that  has  had  on communities  and  families  across  the  country. Because  my  mother  grew  up  in  Crenshaw,  California, there  are  families  everywhere  that have  been  affected  by  this  institution. And  if  they  don't  recognize  that  they  are  responsible  for the  collective  ignorance  to the  repercussions  that  we  are  facing  today, I'm  going  in  circles,  but  what  I  really  want  to say  is  that  we  need  to  acknowledge  the  past. If  we  want  to  understand  where  we  are  now, and  if  we  want  to  understand  why  race  is  important. If  we  want  to  understand  why  race shouldn't  be  taken  off  applications, we  need  to  understand  our  history. So  today  we  are  talking  about  Georgia  Tech's  history. What  a  compelling  story. And  the  way  I  look  at  it  is  that Sam  is  Georgia  Tech  living  black  history. So  that's  very  important  to have  these  living  stories  also. Thank  you  so  much,  Sam. Next  we'll  have  a  presentation by  our  archivists  here  in  the  Georgia  Tech  Library. Once  the  story  got  to  them  and  they  did  some  work, they'll  be  able  to  tell  more  about  what  they  did  to help  make  the  records  accessible  and  discoverable. So  we  have  Alex  Mcgee, who  is  our  university  archivist, and  Alex  Brentson,  who  is our  Association  of  College  and Research  Library  diversity  resident. Welcome,  Alex  and  Alex. All  right.  Make  sure, can  everyone  hear  me  okay? I'm  wearing  a  lot  of  liar  mice, so  it  sounds  weird  to  me. So  as  Karen  just  said,  my  name  is  Alex  Mcgee. I'm  the  university  archivist here  and  I  use  she,  her  pronouns. And  I'm  Alex  Brinson. I'm  an  ACRL  diversity  resident  here  at  the  library. And  I  use  her  pronouns, the  Georgia  Tech  story  of  desegregation. This  quote  up  here,  Georgia  Tech  was the  first  public  university  in the  deep  south  to integrate  peacefully  without  a  court  order. That  sounds  really  nice  and  it  is  factually  true, but  it  belies  the  lived  experience of  the  three  men  pictured  here. The  reality  is  that  in  1961,  Ford  C.  Green, Ralph  Along  Junior,  and  Lawrence  Williams  became the  first  black  students  to  enroll  at  Georgia  Tech. These  students  experienced social  isolation  discrimination. They  were  guarded  by  plain  clothed  policemen  on  campus. They  did  not  get  to  live  in  the  dorms. The  most  telling  fact  is  that  none  of these  men  stayed  at  tech  and  graduated. Lawrence  Williams  did  get  drafted  into  the  Air  Force, but  the  others  transferred elsewhere  and  finished  their  degrees. But  again,  there  is  more  to  the  story  of  desegregation. And  that  begins  before  1961,  as  Sam  just  shared. The  story  of  her  grandfather  is  one that  sent  us  in  the  archives to  search  for  records  about  him. We  looked  at  the  places that  you  would  think  they  would  be. So  like  the  President's  papers, we  did  not  find  anything  there. What  we  instead  found  was a  really  oddly  named  collection called  the  Board  of  Regents  Records, which  this  is  a  little  inside  knowledge, but  we  are  not  the  keepers of  the  Board  of  Regents  records. That's  going  to  be  at  the  State  Archives, so  we  should  not  have  a  collection  called  that. I  looked  at  the  boxes  and  what  we  found inside  were  records  about  Robert  Cheesbo, but  also  records  about  others  that had  attempted  to  integrate  Georgia  Tech. Alex  Alex  joined  the  Georgia  Tech  Library  last  year, and  she  had  picked archives  as  an  area  of  concentration  for  her  work. Particularly  calling  out an  interest  in  reparative  description, which  is  essentially  going  back  and  adding  more  detail, highlighting  these  stories  and  our  collections. She  actually  did  the  work, so  I'm  going  to  let  her  talk  about  it.  Thank  you. So  when  I  received  the  Board  of  Regents  records, it  was  organized  in  three  boxes. The  folder  titles  were  pretty  vague. Some  examples  of  this  are  like Board  of  Regents  1960  to  1963. So  not  a  lot  of  information  to  go on  and  what's  actually  in  those  folders. My  job  consisted  of  going  through  page  by page  to  determine  what  stories were  being  highlighted  here  and  how  I  could  describe  them better  so  people  could  actually use  this  information  in  their  research. And  in  going  through  the  collection, multiple  topics  emerged. Obviously,  we  came  here  because of  Sam's  story  about  her  grandfather. But  I  also  discovered some  documents  pertaining  to  the  Loyalty  oath  Act  that Georgia  state  employees  have  to  sign the  Sugar  Bowl  student  protests  that  happened  in  1956. Textbook  challenges  and  more. There's  a  lot  going  on  in  this  collection, but  our  focus  today  is  on  desegregation. And  so,  I  thought  I'd  share  some of  the  things  that  I  discovered  here. We  know  that  Cheesboro  applied  in  March  of  1953, and  there  were  other  prospective  student  letters that  were  here  as  well,  even  before  Cheesboro. There  was  record  of  Calvin  Jackson  applying  in May  of  1952  following  both  Cheesesboro  and  Jackson. There's  also  a  record  of  Willie  Davis  sending an  inquiry  about  applying  to  Tech  in  December  of  1955. All  of  these  prospective  black  students  received a  similar  letter  that  said  something  in  the  vein  of, we  don't  accept  black  students  at  Georgia  Tech. This  is  a  list  of schools  that  do  outside  of  the  state  of  Georgia, and  you're  free  to  apply  those  places, and  if  you're  accepted we  will  help  at  the  out  of  state  fees. So  then  another  interesting  thing  that  came out  of  this  collection  was  a  series  of documents  showing  the  efforts  of  Curtis  R.  Cosby  in September  of  1963  to desegregate  athletic  events  here  at  Georgia  Tech. He  was  an  Atlanta  citizen, as  far  as  I  could  tell. Not  affiliated  with  Georgia  Tech, but  he  wanted  to  attend  a  football  game  at  Grant  Field. And  he  noticed  that  U,  it  was  segregated. So  he  sent  a  letter,  and we  have  the  letters  back  and  forth, between  President  Harrison  and others  trying  to  decide  how  to  handle  this  situation. Because  they  were  fearful  of negative  press  if  they  told  him  no. But  they  were  also  wary  of  any  violence  that  could occur  if  they  let  him  purchase  a  ticket. Ultimately,  the  documentation  that  I  found  though, shows  that  President  Harrison decides  it's  better  to  just  let  him  purchase  a  ticket. But  all  of  this  information came  from  this  redescription  project. And  obviously,  if  you're  interested  in  these  materials, they  are  in  their  respective  collections. Now  kind  of  we've  restored those  to  where  they  should  have  always  been, and  you  can  find  them  under  Board  of  Regents, a  series  titled  Board  of  Regents. This  work  is  just  beginning. A  lot  of  what  I've  talked  to  you  about  today. I  did  in  the  fall  of  2023, but  Alex  and  I  are  still  working  to  continue this  conversation  and  promote and  this  project  and  engage  with  the  community. Some  of  these  ways  we're  doing  this, I'm  working  on  a  digital  exhibit  or  module to  share  the  historical  context around  a  lot  of  these  materials. There  will  also  be  a  reading  room  exhibit  in our  archives  reading  room  where  you  can see  a  physical  display  of  some  of  this  stuff. An  institute  communications  news article  is  in  the  works  as  well. And  Alex  and  I  will  be  featured  on  Lost  in  the  Stacks, rock  and  roll  radio  show  coming  up  here  shortly. So  if  you're  interested  in  hearing  more, that's  where  you  can  find  us. And  so  I'll  just  wrap  up this  section  by  reiterating  why  this  work  matters. We  had  these  records  on  Robert  Cheesboro  and  others  in our  tens  of  thousands  of  boxes,  and  we  just  didn't  know. And  unfortunately,  this  is  not  uncommon. A  lot  of  marginalized  people's  stories get  lost  in  history  this  way. They're  mislabeled  or  poorly  described. This  isn't  just  something  that  happens  at  Georgia  Tech, it  happens  across  the  country  and  a  lot  of  archives. So  it  really  is  a  testament  to  why  this  work  matters. And  I'll  go  ahead  and  pass  it  back  to  Alex. Yeah,  in  this  particular  example, Sam  shared  her  grandfather's  story  and her  advocacy  is  what  alerted  us  to  it. As  Alex  mentioned,  we  have  thousands of  boxes  in  our  collections. At  the  time  when  Sam  first  met  with  me, I  had  been  here,  I  think  six  months. I  had  barely  scratch the  surface  of  what  Georgia  Tech  history  was. I've  now  been  here  a  year  and  a  half. I  probably  will  never  get  to  go through  all  the  boxes  that  we  have. So  that's  why  it  really matters  that  we're  having  this  conversation. The  takeaway  for  me,  and  I  hope the  takeaway  for  you  guys  today, is  that  we  will  always  be  learning about  Georgia  Tech  history. And  we  will  always  be  expanding our  understanding  of  Georgia  Tech  history. We  at  Georgia  Tech  need  to recognize  that  this  is  going  to  be  iterative  work. Meaning  we  will  always  be  building and  redefining  what  it  is we  know  about  Georgia  Tech  in  our  minds. Alex  and  I,  the  library  and the  archives  are  a  really  important  partner  in  this  work. Simply  because  we  will  continue  to  look  at Georgia  Tech  community  and  understand  what  else can  be  done  and  what  is  still missing  from  this  historical  record. For  better,  for  worse,  I  do  think  there  is power  to  be  in  the  official  record. And  that's  because  when people  are  researching  something  about  Georgia  Tech, they're  going  to  come  to the  archives  and  ask  what  we  have. They're  going  to  ask  us  to  help  fact  check  something. And  that's  internal  to  Georgia  Tech,  but  also  external. And  so  it's  really  important  to  ensure  that  what  we have  in  the  archives  is  discoverable.  It's  accessible. It's  described  in  a  way  that  makes  sense  to  our  users so  that  they  know  that  they  can find  what  they  want,  what  they're  looking  for. And  I  think  it's  also  really important  that  if  we  don't  have  that  story, we  know  how  to  direct someone  and  connect  people  to  where  it  is. So  in  this  example,  like  the  collection  on Robert  Cheesber  at the  NWACP  records  at  Library  of  Congress, that's  a  connection  that  we  would  want to  make  and  point  people  towards. And  so  that  is  all  we  have. So  thank  you  so  much.  These  are  our  e  mails. If  you  do  want  to  talk  to  us about  it  or  have  any  questions about  this  particular  collection, but  we  will  turn  it  over. So  as  we  see,  there's  more  to  come in  archives  and  ways  that  we're still  going  to  be  making  sure  that  this  story  is also  disseminated  and  stays  alive  for  at  least  a  while. Sam,  you  want  to  come  up  and  introduce  this? Might  be  you,  okay. Hey  again  y'all.  So  we're going  to  get  into  this  next  part  of  the  presentation. If  you  guys  want  to  come  up  and  join  me, we're  going  to  go  into  the  aspect, talking  about  the  history  since  1961. In  discussing  both  sides  once  again, because  not  all  that  glitters  is  gold. And  a  lot  of  the  progress  we've  made  is  boasted in  a  way  that  kind  of  overshadows  the  reality of  a  lot  of  what  actually  happened  at  the  institution. Is  there  Clicker?  I  got  it. Oh,  you  had  it?  Okay.  I  think  we're  good. Hello.  Can  everyone  hear  me? Great.  Thank  you  so  much  for  that  introduction. Sam,  my  name's  Adboaske. I'm  a  fourth  year  public  policy  major. I'm  the  Vice  President external  for  the  organization  of  social  activism, and  the  Vice  President  internal  of  student  ambassadors. Hi  everybody.  My  name  is  Camille  Trotman. I  am  the  current  NAACP  president  and  chartering  member. I'm  also  the  Vice  President  of the  Zopa  chapter  of  Delta  Sigma  Theta, already  incorporated  on  campus. I  am  somewhat  of  the  president  of the  Black  Student  Athlete  Association that  was  newly  created. Okay.  I'm  also  a  career  peer DEI  advisor  for  the  career  center, and  I'm  under  Chisholm  SGA  as  the  chair  for  athletics. Okay,  Can  you  hear  me? This?  Is  this  working? Okay.  I  think  so.  Okay.  So  I'm going  to  start  with  this  quote. In  1961,  Georgia  Tech  became  the  first  university  in the  deep  South  to  admit African  American  students  without  a  court  order. This  is  straight  from  the  Georgia  Tech  website? Yeah,  this  is  straight  from  the  Georgia  Tech  website. And  this  is  what  I  saw  as  I  was  doing  my  research  on. Is  everything  good?  Okay.  Okay.  Okay.  But  as I  was  doing  the  research  on  my grandfather's  story  and  trying  to  figure  out, you  know,  all  the  details  of  it. This  is  a  link  that my  sister  sent  me  to  this  website that  has  this  quote  on  it. And  I  remember  being  very  disheartened, knowing  that,  you  know, our  institution  was  boasting,  you  know, how  quickly  they  had  been  to desegregate  and  how  much  progress  they  had  made  and, you  know,  kind  of  the  position  they held  as  a  very  progressive  institution. And  it  kind  of  represented  to  me  how  a  lot  of, a  lot  of  the  progress  that  is  made,  it  is  acknowledged. But  then  in  a  way  that  overshadows,  you  know, the  other  side  of  the  progress  that  was  made and  the  other  parts  of  the  darker, you  know,  less  attractive  history. Yeah.  So  thank  you,  Sam, for  saying  that  information. We've  talked  a  lot  today  about  this  sort  of revisionist  history  that  Georgia  Tech has  created  for  itself, a  lot  of  the  information  that  I've  heard  today  from  Alex, Alex,  and  Sam  is new  information  that  I  haven't  heard  ever  before. But  I  also  think  it's  important to  mention  the  first  and  the  prominent first  that  Georgia  Tech  has  highlighted because  it  frames  the  context  of  our  conversation  today. So  just  starting  in  1961, the  three  pioneers,  Ford, Sea  Green,  Ralph  A  Long  junior, and  Lawrence  Williams  became the  first  African  Americans  to  enroll  at  Georgia  Tech. Then  in  1965,  Ronald  Dense graduated  with  an  electrical engineering  degree  from  Tech, and  he  was  the  first  black  Georgia  Tech  graduate  in  1970. Atasla  Norden,  Tawana  Miller, Grace  Hammons  and  Lemmy  Waley became  the  first  black  women  to  enroll  at  Tech. And  then  six  years  later, Tawana  Miller  and  Brenda  Glop became  the  first  black  woman to  graduate  with  a  bachelor's  degree and  the  four  year  program  at  Georgia  Tech. In  1977,  Professor  Augustine  Og  Bu became  the  institute's  first black  tenured  faculty  member. Then  in  1980,  Dorothy  Yancey  received  tenure  in  1980, becoming  the  first  black  female  faculty  member  to  be promoted  and  tenured  as  a  full  professor  at  Georgia  Tech. And  then  in  2010,  Jacqueline  Royster led  the  Ivan  Allen  College  of Liberal  Arts  2010-2019  as the  first  black  Dean  at  Georgia  Tech. And  then  in  2011, Gary  May  served  in  several  roles  at  a  Alma  mater, eventually  becoming  the  first  black  Dean of  the  College  of  Engineering. There's  a  lot  of  black  history in  between  the  times  that  I've  said, but  these  are  just  the  prominent  ones  that  you  can see  on  Georgia  Tech's  website. You  can  see  it  on  Institute  Communication. So  I  thought  that  they  were  important  to  highlight. But  this  is  something  that  I hope  most  people  in  this  room  know. But  there's  also  things  that  we aren't  aware  of  and  that's  the  hardships  that  they  faced. Sorry,  it  sounds  so  starting  with  the  three  pioneers, as  Alex  mentioned,  they  didn't  receive  a  degree  from Georgia  Tech  due  to unjust  and  unfair  treatment from  students  in  the  university. Then  moving  on  to  Ronald  Dancy, faced  discrimination  and  was  forced  to complete  additional  coursework  to  receive  his  degree. This  included  18  exams  in  five  classes, six  hour  exam  for  extra  credit, and  a  30  page  paper. And  these  three  things  are  all things  that  the  other  300  graduates  that walked  across  the  same  stage  he  did didn't  have  to  do  because they  were  white  and  he  was  black. To  Juana  Miller,  professors  mispronounced  her  name. She  was  called  the  N  word. And  students  hung  pictures  of monkeys  on  black  students  doors. Evelyn  Hanmons,  this  is  a  quote  directly  from  her. The  atmosphere  on  text  campus  was  always  tense. You  felt  like  anything  could  set  off  some  racial  issue, but  mostly  the  white  students  and black  students  just  stayed  apart  from  each  other. These  hardships  are  all things  that  have  come  to  light  because  we've  been able  to  have  the  conversation  with  those  who  face them  to  let  us  know  what  they  experienced. And  the  fact  that  many  of  these  pioneers  are still  alive  today  means  that  we need  to  continue  having  these  conversations. We  need  to  bring  it  to  light  before  the  time  is  too  late, before  we  can't  know  the  history because  they're  no  longer  alive. Oh  yeah.  I'll  add  to  that  as  well. Like  I  said,  I  had  ended  up  having a  conversation  with  Lawrence  Williams, and  I  found  so  much about  I  found  out  so  much  about  his  life, so  much  about  the  hardship  he  faced  here. Some  of  the  things  he  told  me  were  really  insane. I  mean,  he  had  security  all  the  time, his  phone  was  tapped  all  the  time. And  a  lot  of  the  details  that  I  think,  I  mean, I  think  a  very  important  part of  his  experience  here  and  kind  of, you  know,  kind  of  lend  itself  to  understanding. Sorry,  lend  itself  to  kind  of  understanding,  you  know, why  these  students,  you  know, felt  the  need  to  transfer  at  the  time. I  think  we  shouldn't, I  shouldn't  have  to  have  met him  in  person  to  know  that  stuff. And,  you  know,  I  do  think  like  it  is  amazing the  progress  and  the  steps  and the  bravery  of  these  people,  but  I  think, you  know,  overshadowing  what they  went  through  is  detrimental  to, I  think  understanding  the  full  history. So  we're  going  to  move  into  where  we  are  now. We  can  you. So  as  of  right  now, Georgia  Tech  has  over  20  black  student  organizations, and  the  enrollment  for  black  students  is currently  at  a  all  time  high  now. Is  that  high  really  that  high? No.  It  is  steadily  growing. And  one  thing  that  we  really, I  want  to  urge  everybody  to  look  out  for  is  those  numbers following  the  enrollment  of  the  2024  2025  class, because  this  will  be  the  first class  post  affirmative  action. So  we'll  see  if  those  numbers continue  to  rise  in  a  positive  trend. And  also  our  black  alumni  network  has created  the  Black  Alumni  Organization, which  is  extremely  active and  with  all  the  black  student  organizations  that  we  see. Some  of  the  recent  initiatives  we  have,  among  many, many  more  that  we  couldn't  name, are  the  Diversity  Symposium  in the  statues  which  were  here  as  of  2019. The  chartering  of  the  NAACP  chapter here  at  Tech  as  of  2022. The  D  Nine  Plaza  which  came  here  in  2023. And  most  recently,  the  Urged  demonstration  and  forum, which  many  of  you  here  are  familiar  faces  who  are  there plaza  now  to  get into  what  urge  is  and  why  it  matters  today. Considering  recent  changes  by  the  Supreme  Court, all  of  us  came  together  as students  and  came  up  with  Urge, which  is  what  we're  experiencing  here  today. Urge  stands  for  the  underrepresented  groups in  education  at  Georgia  Tech. And  it  was  developed  as  a  coalition  to  promote efforts  here  on  Tech  campus. The  demonstration  which  was  led  by  the  NAACP, but  also  very  much supported  and  helped  plan  by  every  black  student, or  black  students  in  general,  on  this  campus. After  the  demonstration,  where  we  marched throughout  campus  and  had  demands  and spoke  with  many  different  faculty and  staff  about  our  concerns, we  were  able  to  have  the  urge  forum, which  was  co  hosted  by  OSA  and  the  BAO  and  this  became the  first  open  conversation  directly between  minority  student  leaders  and  administration. And  this  has  since been  adapted  into  something  that  will  happen monthly  and  it's  a  governance  forum  by  SGA. So  a  very  big  leap  that  was  necessary  for  us  to continue  the  conversation  and  not  just  have one  demonstration  or  one  forum, but  something  we  can  always  come  back  to, so  the  progress  never  stops. And  so  today  we  are  demanding a  true  acknowledgment  of  texts,  races  past, and  it's  present  repercussions  because the  black  community  here  and  everywhere  deserves  respect. We  all  know  from  the  archivist,  from  this  conversation, there's  a  lot  of  things  we  still  haven't  acknowledged, a  lot  of  things  we  still  aren't  aware  of. But  with  persistence,  with students  always  asking  questions  and  being  inquisitive, we  can  uncover  a  lot  more. We'll  never  know  the  full  extent of  what  people  went  through. There  will  always  be  that  person who's  stuck  in  an  archive  somewhere that  was  forgotten  by text  history  or  by  the  university  history, the  registrar,  every  university  within  the  United  States. But  through  things  like  this, we  can  always  continue  to  take  steps  forward. 1961  was  not  the  end, but  rather  the  beginning  and something  that  we're  still  fighting  for  today. Okay.  And  so  today, once  again,  it  is  about  reckoning  with  the  past, especially  text  past,  and  thus  realizing  a  better  future because  you  can't  make progress  without  looking  back  at  where  you  came  from. And  so  with  that  being  said,  we  are  going  to move  into  the  final  portion  of  the  event. We're  going  to  do  a  little  panelist  conversation. And  in  this  portion  it's  Q and  A.  It's  an  open  conversation. So  we'd  actually  love,  I think  there's  going  to  be  a  microphone  here,  okay? So  there's  going  to  be  a  microphone  and we  would  love  to  have  questions  presented. Any  questions,  concerns,  suggestions,  if  any. You  guys  were  at  the  first  urged  forum,  then,  you  know, and  even  at  the  governance  forum, then  you  know  that,  you  know, we're  here  to  kind  of  hear  what  everyone  has  to  say, hear  the  voices  of  the  students, and  then  relay  that to  any  administrators  that  are  not  here  today. Okay?  Yeah. Yeah.  So  thank  you  all  so  much  for  coming  and experiencing  this  with  all  of  us  and  uncovering some  history  that  a  lot  of  us  have  never  heard  of  before. We'd  like  to  start  with  some  self  introduction, so  I'll  go  ahead. My  name  is  Chisholm  Anya. I'm  a  fourth  year  Biochemistry major  with  a  French  minor  at  Georgia  Tech. I  am  the  President  of  the  Georgia  Tech  Student  Abastors, and  I  am  the  vice  President  of  student  life  within  SGA, this  initiative  I've  been  supporting  Sam  and  Camille. Independently  working  with  Urge. And  I  was  really,  really  blessed  to be  able  to  be  a  part  of  this  movement. So  I  felt  that  it  was  extremely  important  for  SGA  to  do its  part  in  promoting black  student  voices  on  this  campus. And  thus  was  the  birth  of  the  urge  governance  forum. So  it  is  exciting  to see  a  room  full  of  people  who  are  passionate and  interested  in  hearing  that  are DEI  initiatives  on  campus  and  how  to  promote  them. So  that's  kind  of  a  little  bit  about, I'll  let  everyone  else  do  it  in  Trow  as  well. Okay.  I'll  go  ahead.  So  once  again, my  name  is  Sam  Bolton. I'm  a  Business  Administration  major. I  am  the  president  and  founder  of the  Organization  for  Social  Activism. And  yeah,  once  again, this  is  a  continuation  of  the  urge  forum. And  the  urge  as  a  movement  itself  from  last  semester. And  it's  something  that  we  want  to  continue because  having  this  conversation, having  a  space  where it's  not  students  against  administration, but  students  with  administration. Students  being  able  to  be  heard  and administration  being  able  to  actually  hear  what  we  need. Because  what  I  found  out  is, you  know,  a  lot  of the  people  that  I  considered,  you  know, I  don't  want  to  say  our  enemies,  but  you  know, the  people  that  were  kind  of  making  it hard  for  us  to  make  progress  are  truly  our  allies. A  lot  of  the  administrators  want  exactly  what  we  want and  they  just  don't  know  what  we  want  until  we  say  it. So  once  again,  like  Chism  said  to  reiterate, we're  really  happy  to  have  you  guys  all  here  today  and  to just  be  able  to  continue  this  conversation. Well,  I  just  gave  an  introduction  but  I did  not  say  my  major.  So  yeah. Once  again,  I'm  Camille  Trotman. I'm  a  literature,  media  and  Communications  major. I'm  a  graduating  senior  and  I  plan to  be  enrolled  in  law  school  this  upcoming  fall. And  I  wear  mini  hats  on  campus  as a  student  athlete  and a  black  student  leader,  you  can  keep  it. Hopefully  mine  works.  I  graduated  a  very  long  time  ago, not  from  Georgia  Tech,  so  I  went to  the  other  school  in  the  state  of  Georgia. But  I  studied  history  and  women's  studies, if  that  matters  for  all. But  I'm  a  university  archivist. My  name  is  Alex  Mcgee, and  I'm  just  really  excited  to  be  here  with these  great  students  and  have  this  conversation. So  we  want  to  kick  it  off  for  a  couple  of questions  for  you  all  as  an audience  to  kind  of  think  about. And  then  as  you  line  up  and  come  up  to  the  mike, you  can  either  share  your  thoughts  or  ask  us  questions. I  will  be  transcribing  everything  that  is  occurring  here, so  then  we  can  create  formal  recommendations to  the  President's  Office,  the  Provost, as  well  as  other  administration for  underrepresented  groups  in  education. And  what  we  would  like  to  see  change. So  first  question  to think  about  is  it  has  been  an  impediment  that students  applying  to  American  universities  has  been denied  educational  opportunities because  of  the  color  of  their  skin. Do  you  believe  that  structural  inequities  and student  enrollments  continue  to exist?  And  please  elaborate. And  last,  in  the  face  of  ongoing  racial  barriers, how  can  Georgia  Tech  continue  to  facilitate meaningful  conversations  that  deal with  complex  issues  that  impact  students? And  if  you  know  of  any  current  methods or  forthcoming  actions,  please  share. So  I  would  invite everyone  to  take  a  moment  to  think  about  those, as  well  as  think  about  the  other  questions  and  thoughts, concerns,  and  suggestions  you  have. And  whenever  you're  ready,  please feel  free  to  walk  up  to  the  mic near  Miss  Manning  and ask  your  questions  or  share  your  concerns. And  if  you're  unable  to  physically  come  to  the  mic, just  raise  your  hand  and  we'll make  sure  to  get  it  to  you  also. Hello,  my  name  is  Effie. I'm  a  senior  studying  public  policy. This  isn't  necessarily  a  question or  something  to  do  with  administration. This  is  something  that  I've  noticed  in the  black  GD  community and  that  I'm  very  passionate  about. So  we're  talking  about  telling  full  black  stories, giving  full  personhood  to  black  stories. But  on  Georgia  Tech's  campus,  a  lot  of  students, a  lot  of  black  queer  students, feel  like  we're  not  accepted  in black  orgs  and  that  our  stories  aren't  being  told. And  if,  like,  organizations aren't  actively  hostile  to  us, they  don't  listen  to  us  at  all. And  so  I  would  like  to  know  what  you  all  are doing  to  make  your  organization  safer  black  students. And  I  also  want  to  know,  in  general, what  have  you  done  in the  past  to  help  black  career  students? And  if  you  are  planning  to  do  anything to  help  black  career  students  in  the  future, I  know  in  terms  of  the  NACP  new  org, but  one  of  our  goals  is  to  constantly  be  like  working towards  encompassing  like  the  full  black  community. And  I  know  last  semester  this  wasn't necessarily  with  queer  students, but  we  made  sure  we  had  a  meeting  about black  students  with  disabilities and  the  reality  surrounding  that, because  that's  also  another  community  that  I  feel like  is  usually  not  only  extremely  marginalized, but  often  just  invisible. Like  we  had  a  whole  meeting  dedicated to  just  how  we  can  continue  to  support  those  groups. And  I  will  say  we  haven't  had  anything  necessarily about  black  queer  students, but  now  that  you've  said  that. That's  something  I'm  sure we  will  push  to  have  in  the  future. And  especially  with  us  being like  a  grassroots  organization, most  of  all  the  things  we  do  is we  always  want  to  make  sure  any  meeting  we  have, we're  not  just  talking  about  something  and just  like  giving  our  grievances. There's  always  like,  okay, now  that  we  did  this,  what's our  action  item,  what's  our  plan? I  have  further  conversation  with  you about  like  action  items  you  want  to  see, 'cause  I  know  a  lot  of  times  when  it  comes to  queer  stories  within  the  black  community, it's  a  lot  of  talk  and  not  a  lot  of, Okay,  now  what  can  we  do? What  policy  can  we  change? What  can  actually  be real  things  we  can  see  so  that  we  just  don't  know, oh  no,  I'm  here  to  support  you, but  how  can  I  support  you? So  I  think  that  would  be  a  great  conversation on  how  we  can  not  only  make  it  a  safe  space, but  a  place  that  can  cultivate  real  change  through policy  action  or  different  initiatives  on  campus. Okay.  Yeah,  I  can  also  address  that. I  really  appreciate  you  bringing  that  up.  I  really  do. Because  I  feel  like  in  a  lot  of  initiatives, especially  when  it  comes  to  like  addressing, you  know,  minority  groups, and  I  feel  like  it  always feels  like  you  need  to  take  baby  steps,  like, you  know,  even  just  this  like addressing  the  full  Black  history. But  I  don't  think  like  you're  right. It  shouldn't  be  like  just  addressing  black  history, just  addressing  black  students. We  shouldn't  have  to  go  step  by  step,  okay? You  know,  black  students  and  then  black  Ko  students. Like  we  should,  you  know,  address  it  all  at  once. And  that  should  be  a  priority. And  like,  I  really  do  appreciate  you  bringing  that  up. And  I  will  say  for  my  organization and  obviously  once  again, we're  putting  this  down  and  I  would love  to  bring  that  up  also, you  know,  when  we  present  this stuff  to  the  administration. But  I'll  say  for  my  organization, at  least  one  of  our  main  things  is collaboration  and  kind  of the  overlap  of  justice  principles. So  when  it  comes  to  events  and  just  in  general, we  try  to  overlap  kind of  all  the  advocacy  we  do  with  like, you  know,  kind  of  where  they  overlap. So  like  for  example,  next  week  we have  an  event  that's  environmental  just, you  know,  sustainability  but  also  environmental  justice, like  how  it  affects,  you  know,  the  black  community. But  I'm  not  sure  if  we've  had one  specifically  for  black  queer  students and  black  queer  awareness. But  I'll  definitely  keep  in  mind, I  really  do  appreciate  your  bringing  that  up. I  just  want  to  lastly  add, thank  you  so  much  for  bringing  that  up. I  appreciate  your  courage and  your  bravery  to  stand  up  and tell  us  something  about Georgia  Tech  that  we  may  not  know. So  I  appreciate  that. I  echo  everything  that  Camille  and  Sam  both  said. I  think  further  conversations  absolutely  need  to  be  had. And  I  wrote  that  down  in this  notebook  and  I  would  love  to  meet  with you  in  terms  of the  organizations  that  I'm  a part  of  within  student  ambassadors. Diva  is  my  Vice  President  of  Internal. We  have  worked  extremely  hard  in  the  past  few  years. I've  served  on  Exec  for  the  past  two  years. I'm  President  now. And  it  has  been  one  of our  main  priorities  to  increase  diversity, equity,  inclusion  as  a  whole  in  the  organization. That  when  I  was  joining  it  was  not  there. So  first,  some  quick statistics  for  those  of  all  who  don't  know. In  my  ambassador  class, when  I  had  been  accepted  in  2022,  question  mark  2022, there  were  six  black  students  out  of  40  something students  total  who  were  accepted  in  this  past  year, 2024,  there  were  18. So  when  I  tell  you  that  we  are  actively keeping  students  of  color  in mind  in  every  aspect  of  our  organization, in  our  policies,  in  our  by  laws, in  our  recruitment  process, we  are  working  hard  and there's  absolutely  more  work  to  be  done. So  I  appreciate  you  bringing this  up  and  I  would  love  to  have further  conversations  with  you  as  well. I'm  always  open  to  conversation.  Thank  you.  Thank  you. Mm  hmm. Bank. Hello,  everyone.  My  name  is  Bianca  Mitchell  and I'm  a  second  year  industrial  and systems  engineering  major. My  question  is,  you  know, urge  came  about  after the  lighting  of  the  affirmative  action  case, and  it  stands  for  underrepresented  groups  in  education. I'm  kind  of  wondering,  you  know, how  is  urge  targeting  other  demographics  on  campus, not  just  the  black  community. Because  I  understand  that  there's  other  communities  on campus  who  feel  like  they  weren't necessarily  included  in  urge. And  I  just  want  to bring  light  to  their  voice  in  the  room. So  I  will  say  there  were other  minorities  invited  to  participate  in  urge, and  we  didn't  receive  any  participation. But  the  door  remains  open. And  of  course,  I  can't  say  or  act  like  I'm  positive. I  hit  us  as  a  group, hit  every  single  minority  organ  on this  campus  because  I  know  we  didn't,  there's There  wasn't  enough  people involved  to  make  sure  that  happened. But  now  with  us  having  this  forum, with  us  doing  things  like  this, we  can't  make  sure  it  happens. But  I  also  want  to  say  as  students, if  you  have  friends  who  are  in  these  other  orgs  that especially  the  major  ones  they  were  reached  out to  and  there  was  no  response, push  them  to  do  these  things. I  feel  like  a  lot  of  times,  especially  at  tech, it's  an  issue  with  black  student  orgs, it's  the  issue  with  all  orgs,  we  do  not overlap  with  other  minorities. It  just  doesn't  happen  when  we  do  that, I  feel  like  we'll  have  unlocked something  much  bigger  than  anything  we've  done  thus  far, like  reach  out  to  your  communities, have  them  come  to  these  meetings. They're  always  welcome. I  know  sometimes  it  can  seem like  stuff  like  this  is  just  for  black  students, but  it  all  has  to  start  somewhere. Just  to  add  to  that,  in  the  inception  of  urge, everyone  up  here,  all  the  students  up  here, along  with  many  students  sitting  in  the  audience, and  even  students  who  aren't  here  today, sat  down  together  and  talked about  the  name  of  this  organization. There  were  a  lot  of  opportunities  for  us  to call  this  like  the  Black  Coalition  or  that. And  we  were  extremely  intentional in  calling  this  movement, the  urge  for  underrepresented  groups  in  education. We  did  reach  out  to  multiple  organizations, we  didn't  receive  responses. But  like  Camille  said,  the  door  is  always  open. And  the  reason  why  I  made  it  a  point  to  continue this  monthly  open  forum  is  to create  that  point  of  accessibility  for  everyone, not  just  black  students, but  for  all  underrepresented  groups in  education  to  be  able  to  have  that  voice. So  I  encourage  all  of  you  to  go  into  your  communities  and continue  to  search  for  the  people  who  may  have something  to  say  and  not  recognize that  this  might  be  a  space  for  them. Because  this  is  a  space for  underrepresented  groups  in education  to  be  able  to  speak. And  that's  exactly  the  purpose  and  the  mission  of  it. So  thank  you  for  telling  us. Thank  you  so  much.  Thank  you. Well,  I  think  is  Morgan. Hello,  I'm  Morgan. I'm  a  freshman  at  Teca, Ma,  a  compe  major  of  a  minor  in  LST. Sam  Chisholm.  I  have  so  much  respect  for  you  guys. Thank  you  for  putting  something  like  this  on. I  wanted  to  answer your  question  that  you  were  asking  earlier in  terms  of  things  that  are so  systemically  affecting  minorities. And  something  that  came  to  mind  for  me and  as  I've  been  in  the  school, I  suppose  Georgia  Tech  rewards students  with  more  credit  specifically  when  you  come  in, when  it  comes  to  housing  selection. Thank  you.  Class  registration  and  many  other  things. And  it's  no  secret that  minority  students  are  more  likely  to  come  from high  schools  and  non  college  education  that doesn't  offer  AP's  and offer  dual  credit  and  things  of  that  nature. And  as  a  result,  I've  seen  my  own  friends  be disadvantaged  at  the  school  and  at  other  schools, honestly,  because  they  didn't  have  this  head  start. I'm  sure  there  are  practical  reasons behind  the  way  that  we  do  that. But  I  suppose  what  I'm  saying  is that  I  think  a  great  initiative within  organizations  such  as  your own  would  be  reaching  out  to  high  school  students. And  making  them  aware  of  different  outlets that,  that  they  can  reach. So  that  they  can  not only  be  more  prepared  for  classes  in  general, but  be  prepared  for  the  fact  that  there  is sort  of  a  merit  system  when  it  comes to  academics  so  that  they  are  able  to  access  more  things. So,  yes,  and  additionally,  I'm  not  nine, but  I  have  noticed  that  in  terms  of  the  Denine  Plaza, I  don't  think  students  on  campus truly  understand  it  or  know  what  it's  for. I've  had  non  black  students  tell  me they  thought  it  was  for  dead  fraternities, things  of  that  nature. And  I've  seen  literal  cops  sitting  in  places  where, to  my  understanding,  they  are  not  supposed  to  be  sitting. That's  just  something  I  was sort  of  thinking  about  on  the  side. But  I  think  that  general  education  to  the  masses  of Georgatech  is  another  thing  that  should  be  addressed. Thanks. So  just  off  the  first  part  of  your  statements, I  want  to  bring  attention  to  BSRT, Black  student  Recruitment  team. They're  working  really  hard  to  make  sure that  they're  able  to  go  to  these  schools  still, especially  following  affirmative  action, and  able  to,  you  know, have  conversation  with  students after  they're  admitted  or  before  they're  admitted. But  there's  a  whole  group  dedicated  to  making sure  that  students  can  hear  from Georgia  Tech  students  and  know  certain  things. But  I  also  do  know  that  there is  conversation  within  the  D  nine. That's  just  because  that's  what  I'm  familiar  with. A  lot  of  people,  I  know  some  of the  girls  from  my  chapter  just  came  from  a  high  school. I  forgot  one  of  the  local  high  schools  just  talking about  college  and  how  to  matriculate. But  it  is  a  major  problem that  I  had  a  conversation  with  Rick  Clark, the  head  of  admissions,  about  like what  that  will  look  like  and  how  they're  able  to. When  looking  at  minorities, that  discussion  goes  because  a  lot  of students  come  from  title  one  schools  or just  schools  that  don't  have things  like  AP  and  IB  courses. Like  how  was  that  looked  at? And  he  did  somewhat  assure  me  that  they  look  at the  profile  of  the  school  when  admitting  students  to  be sure  that  they'll  know  maybe  the  student  didn't  ten  AP's, but  they  also  only  had  one  that  was  offered. So  they  try  not  to  use  that  on  admissions, but  it  definitely  should  be a  bigger  conversation  so that  students  do  come  here  and  realize, well,  somebody  is  like  three semesters  ahead  of  me  because of  what  they  did  in  high  school. And  it's  not  fair.  But  I  have  omed, I  have  different  places  on  campus. I  can  go  to  support  me, so  I  don't  feel  so  behind. But  I  think  that's  a  great  thing  that  we probably  need  to  put  more  emphasis  on. Because  a  lot  of  students  don't know  what  support  they  have  when  they  come  here. And  you  do  feel  like,  oh  my  gosh, everybody  has  taken  calculus, everybody  already  knows  how  to  do  physics, and  I  don't  like,  do  I  belong  here? Yeah.  And  then  for  the  D  nine  thing, that's  been  a  very  big  conversation amongst  all  of  the  orgs  because  we've  had students  say  that  D nine  was  racist  for  not  letting  them  sit  there. Which  is  like  that's  crazy. But  they  have  no  clue  how  crazy  they  sound. So  there  has  been  like, I  believe  a  temporary  sign placed  that  kind  of  gives  a  blurb  of  history, but  something  more  permanent  is  on  the  way. And  there  is  constant  conversation  with administration  and  meetings  that we're  having  with  admin  to  figure  out how  can  we  make  sure  people  know  what  this  is. Because  at  other  schools  there's  no  like,  oh, what  is  this  like  people  know  because  it's  talked  about. So  we're  having  that  conversation because  it's  very  upsetting  to  all  of  us. I  want  to  add  specifically  on  the  Nine  Plaza, part  of  my  role  as  Vice  President  of  student  life includes  cultural  and  diversity  affairs  on  campus. So  first  of  all, I  am  not  nine, but  I  understand  your  frustration  and the  frustration  of  D  nine  members  on  campus, black  students  on  campus  because  it  is  frustrating. It's  frustrating  to  have  worked  so  hard to  advocate  so  hard  for  something  like  the  D  Nine  Plaza. They've  been  advocating  for  that  for  decades. And  to  finally  have  it  come  to  campus  but  then not  be  respected  is  extremely  disheartening. I  want  to  also  let everyone  know  that  we're  working  on  it. Like  Camille  said,  there  is  a temporary  plaque  in  place  right  now, but  a  permanent  plaque  is  on  the  way. Dr.  Harrington  specifically  has  worked  really, really,  really,  really  hard  at  this. She's  sitting  back  there,  you  know, she  wants  to  take  over, but  she's  been  doing  an  incredible  job, genuinely  working  really  hard  at  this. It's  what  we're  doing in  this  year  has  never  been  done  before. So  we  are  challenging  tech  in a  way  that  they  have  not  been challenged  and  it's  a  positive  thing. But  because  of  that,  sometimes  it  takes  a  little  time. So  we  are  committed  to  continue  to  keep  y'all  updated, but  that  permanent  plaque  will  be  coming and  along  that  an  educational  opportunity. And  that's  something  that  Dr.  Harrington is  committed  to  make  sure  that  happens. So  I  will  know  that at  least  my  dying  breath  will  make  sure  that's  there. And  I'll  add  real  quick, one  thing  I  do  really  hope  to  come  out  of, you  know,  this  whole  process, the  urge  and  everything  is  kind  of, you  know,  making  sure the  administration  understands  that. It's  not  about  just  having the  thing,  it's  about  the  intention. It's  about  making  sure  students  know, you  know,  how  to  best  utilize  what  they  give  us. You  know,  because  I  think  sometimes it  does  feel  like  tech  will  just  will create  things  or  give  things  and  just  be  well  now we  have  it  and  then  just  drop it  there  and  kind  of  walk  away. And  that  is  something,  you  know,  now  that  we're having  this  conversation,  we  can  kind  of  address. And  we  can  get  them  to  understand,  you  know, as  students,  how  it  actually feels,  how  it  actually  comes  off. And  so  that  we  do hope  to  kind  of  address  that  going  forward. Thank  you  to  that  point. I  just  think  it's  so  we  walk  past  the  houses  every  day. We  know  everything  that  they  do  and  do  not want  in  that  side  of  Greek  life. They  should  at  least  know  what  to  do  with  our  culture. So  how  do  we  agree  with  you? Thank  you.  Thank  you.  Thank  you. Hey,  okay,  so  I'm  Diego  and  for  some  context, I  grew  up  here  in  Atlanta,  in  southwest  Atlanta. Actually  southwest  of  Morehouse. In  the  west  end  of  any  of  y'all  are  from  Atlanta. And  so  my  question  for  you  guys  is, I'm  wondering,  what  do  you  see  the  scope  of  urge  being? Is  urge  a  program  that  looks  to,  you  know, develop  and  further  minorities  here  on  campus, or  are  we  talking  about  the  greater  Atlanta  area? Because  one  of  my  bigger  concerns is  when  we're  talking  about  evaluating the  history  of  Georgia  Tech  and the  cultural  context  in  which  we  exist. We  are  overlooking the  cultural  context  of  Atlanta  as  a  whole. And  my  personal  experience,  you  know, as  a  student  of  color  and living  in  this  very  low  income  neighborhood, we  have  this  bubble  of  privilege. And  family  is  in  southwest  Atlanta,  in  the  west  end. And  so,  you  know,  every  weekend  I  go  back to  take  care  of  my  little  brother  in  the  west  end. And  it's  so  demeaning  to  leave  this  beautiful, beautiful  campus  and  go  right  past  north side  and  it's  U  not  decrepid, but  I  mean  it's  people  are  struggling and  my  people  are  in  so  much  pain. And  it  reminds  me  every  time  I  take  that  drive or  I  walk  like  I  don't  belong  here. This  institution  was  not  built  for  me. So  I'm  wondering,  do  you  guys  see  the  urge, the  underrepresented  groups  in  education  as something  that  is  going  to  impact the  greater  Atlanta  area? Are  we  looking  to  bring  projects  to  revitalize, you  know,  not  just  cultural  competency  on  campus, but  also  the  well  being  of the  severely  underfunded  communities that  surround  campus. And  that  we  pretty  much  just, we  put  wax  in  our  ears  and  we  go,  la,  la,  la. We  can't  hear  you,  but  they're  right  there. It's  right  across  North  Avenue. Right  across  North  Side  Drive. I  know  I'll  say  urge as  of  right  now  is  really  anything  we  want  it  to  be. It's  student  led,  a  student  created,  It's  brand  new. We're  really,  we're  chatting about  this  every  week,  like  what's  next? So  if  that's  what you  feel  needs  to  be  next,  that's  what's  next. Like  I  feel  like  that's  one  thing with  us  having  these  new  student  orgs, we  just  chartered  the  NWACP  here. Like  we  are  doing  the  things, all  the  hard  things  are  coming  from the  students  who  are  here  currently. And  it's  not  like  something  that's  been  here  for years  or  something  that's already  has  such  a  strong  foundation. People  are  scared  to  shake  it  up  like  no, we  are  making  the  foundation  now, so  that  can  become  a  part  of  it  just as  easily  as  this  forum  became  a  part  of  it. And  I  feel  like  what  you're  saying  is  so  true. Like  I  always  joke  that  like  once  you  go  past  home  park, you're  in  the  real  Atlanta,  we're  in this  little  bubble  of  Georgia  Tech. And  I  know  like  the  NWACP, when  we  do  a  lot  of  stuff with  voting  initiatives  and  everything. And  when  we  go  around  the  community  and we're  like  canvassing  and  knocking  on  doors, like  we're  not  like, most  of  the  people  we  interact  with  aren't  tech  students. Because  most  tech  students  will  not  sign  up  to  vote. But  the  people  who  we  knock  on  the  doors to  in  Fulton  County  as  a  whole, that's  who  we're  really  here  to  service. And  so  I  do  think  that  that's an  easy  thing  to  do  because  we  have  students  like you  who  are  from  here  who  can  give that  insight  and  who  can  really  make  that  happen. Like  there's  no  set  plan  for  what  we're  doing. And  it's  not  like  we  have  administrators like  telling  us  how  we  can  go  about  this. This  is  all  about  us.  This  is  all  us. So  just  because  you  said  that  now  it's  like, yeah,  that  is  what  urge  is  going  to  become. Whatever  we  can  do  whatever  we  want, we  can  become  whatever  we  want. And  I  really  just  the  same  way  he  just  brought  that  up. I  want  other  students  to  know  this is  the  whole  point  of  this  forum. It's  for  students  to  say  things  that  they  feel  like  we need  because  we  haven't got  a  chance  to  have  these  conversations. And  let  administration  hear us  and  let  other  student  Orks  hear  us. We  have  students  from  so  many  different BSO's  here  right  now  like  everybody  just  heard  you. And  I'm  sure  everybody's going  to  go  home  and  talk  about  it. I'll  add  one  thing  I  really  wanted  is  this  still  okay? Okay.  I  do  want  to  say  like, one  thing  I  really  wanted  to  address,  even  today, I'd  wanted  to  talk  about  kind  of the  history  of  like  what  the  impact Tech  has  had  on  the  Atlantic  community  that  isn't  talked about  like  the  negative  impacts  because  you  know, yes,  it's  a  great  campus,  it's  amazing, but  we're  in  this  community  and  like  you  said, like  we  have  the  potential, the  resources  to  help. But  I  feel  like  there  is  kind  of  that, it's  that  bubble.  We're  in  this  bubble. And  you  know,  that's  kind  of  one  giant  thing  I  really want  to  kind  of  stress  with  like  this whole  acknowledging  the  full  story, acknowledging  the  full  everything. Like  we  do  need  to acknowledge  like  our  full  circumstance  like  where  we  are, what  this  institution  is, where  we  are,  what  we're  capable  of. And  that  is  one  thing.  Like  when  it  comes  to addressing  Tex  history  and  tech  kind  of  impact. It's  always,  you  know,  and  it  should  be  glorified. There's  a  lot  of  glorious  things  about  this  institution, but  it  is  kind  of overshadowing  a  lot  of the  negative  impacts  that  tech  has  had. And  so  I  think  the  first  step  is  kind  of acknowledging  where  our  own  shortcomings  have  been. Like  where  our  own  negative  impact has  been  on  the  local  community. And  then  yeah,  going  from  there  like understanding  like  how  we  can  help. And  I  know  I  wish  I  remembered who  it  was  or  what  conversation  I  was  having, but  I  remember  hearing  a  story  about  one  of our  previous  deans  who  had  done  a  bunch  of  work  in  DEI, had  done  a  bunch  of  work  in  trying  to  start  this  program, like  basically  a  community  partnership  program with  the  community  of  Atlanta. And  I  believe  it  was  she  she, but  she  had  done  all  this  work  and  had  like  put the  program  in  place  and  put all  this  just  all  of  this  into  it. And  the  community  was  already  like  relying  on  it. They  were  already  like  super  excited  to  work  with  us. And  then  from  what  I  remember,  the  story  goes  that The  institution  basically  just  kind  of pulled  out  funding  kind  of  last  minute. Like  after  they  had  already decided  we're  going  to  help  with  this  and  this, they're  kind  of  like  we  actually,  we're  going to  give  these  resources  to  something  else. And  I  think  that  kind  of  stuff  like  that  just  story. And  I'm  pretty  sure  that  Dean  resigned  right  after  that. And  it's  that  kind  of  stuff  where, you  know,  that  kind  of  constant, just  negligence  of  where  we  are  and  what  we  can  do. I  completely  agree.  And  I  think  that  as  Mill  was  saying, I  think  that  is  a  great  next  step  of  what  we  can do  as  powerful  students  here  with  the  power  we  have. So  I  really  appreciate  you  bringing  that  up. Yeah.  And  I  just  for  the  three  of  you, I  want  you  to  be  thinking  the  reason  why I  asked  like  not  is  this  something  you  want, but  is  this  in  the  scope  of  what  you  envision? Because  as  we  go  forward  with  urge, it's  very  important  that  we're  being intentional  with  exactly  what  urge  is  about, what  it  represents,  and  how  we  can  help  our  people. And  so  if  we  envision  urge  as something  that  is  going  to  go  beyond  Tech  Campus, which  I  think  that  it  should  be. And  I  want  to  remind  us  all  in  the  room today  that  as  recipients  of  privilege, we  are  obliged  to give  back  to  the  communities  from  which  we  came. I  appreciate  you  saying  that.  Thank  you  so  much. Okay,  hi,  my  name  is  Asia  Preface. I'm  actually  the  president  of  the black  student  recruitment  team that  was  highlighted  a  little  bit  earlier. So  this  is  going  to  be  kind  of  a  comment then  it's  going  to  eventually turn  to  a  question,  trust  me. So  I  want  to  kind  of  mention  what  was  said  before about  being  in  like  a  bubble.  I  definitely  agree. One  thing  we're  focusing  on  with our  team  this  year  is  getting  uncomfortable, going  to  the  schools  that  people  were  scared  to  go  to, going  to  minority  centered  schools  and  teaching. Going  back  and  actually  bringing Stem  classes  to  these  middle  school  students  in  Fulton. Dec  Atlanta  Public  Schools, that  has  been  our  main  focus  entire  year. We've  been  doing  a  lot  of  workshops, webinars,  seminars,  hosting  events. And  we  are  not  the  only  organization that  does  it,  I  will  say. But  I  do  think,  you  know,  I want  to  put  that  out  there  that,  you  know, we  know  that  we're  privileged enough  to  go  to  tech  even  if  we didn't  come  from  privileged  backgrounds. So  we  want  to  give  back. However,  I  will  say  that  that  is, I  feel  like  a  lot  of  people here  at  different  organizations  on campus  have  been  doing  the  work but  not  getting  the  exposure. I  believe  these  events  are  happening, these  workshops  are  happening. I  would  want  to  see  how  as  a  school  we  can  help  elevate these  events  to  become  more  focused  out  in  the  public. It  shouldn't  be  something  that's  word  of  mouth. And  I'm  not  just  saying  that  for  my  team. I'm  saying  that  on  behalf  of the  Hispanic  recruitment  team  nine  organizations, I  know  they  do  a  lot  on  campus  too, that  don't  get  highlighted  as  much  as  well  as the  multicultural  Pan  Hellenic  Council. I  spoke  about  this  a  little  bit in  a  training  like  a  week  ago. We  did  talk  about  how  history  here  is  at tech  and  making  sure  we  also teach  that  a  little  bit  more. At  the  same  way  that  everything  else,  you  know, you  get  E  mails  on  your  phone  from the  Daily  Digest  and  all  the  things. And  we're  talking  at  every  time  I  look  down  on  my  phone, I  hear  about  research  we're  doing. I  hear  about,  you  know, these  big,  oh,  new  buildings  getting  built. But  I'm  not  hearing  about  what our  organizations  are  doing. And  it's  kind  of  like  we  can  only  do  so  much  on  our  end. And  I  also  want  to  open  the  door  there. Our  teams  also  opened  in  collaboration  as  well. There's  been  a  lot  of  talks  about how  can  we  get  high  schoolers  involved, DEI  and  basically  with  affirmative  action. What's  the  response  with  that  and our  team,  that's  our  sole  focus. I  would  like  to  have  more  collaboration  with  that, especially  revolving  when  it  comes  to  admissions. If  we're  going  to  have  something  focused  on  admissions, please  invite  the  blessed  black  student  recruitment  team, Hispanic  recruitment  team,  and  women's  recruitment  team. I  feel  like  one  we  are  certified  to  talk  about  this, being  that  we  get  trained  on  admissions. And  I  feel  like  why  not  invite  the  people  who  know exactly  what  needs  to  happen  to  go  ahead  and  speak  on  it. And  that  goes  past  blackton  organizations  that's pass  government  associations  like  you  just  in  general. Those  I  think  was  my  biggest  things I  remember.  I  was  trying  to  think. But  yeah,  I  think  the  exposure of  different  organizations  and  what  they're  doing  on campus  is  really  important  as  well  as having  the  room  for these  organizations  to  have  their  events. You  know,  you  have  an  event  where  you're  trying  to help  300  high  school  students, but  instead  someone's  throwing  a  party  on  campus  and  now, and  they're  able  to  book  the  space for  three  times  in  a  row. You  know,  people  can't  find, people  can't  find  funding  to  host  these  things. You  know,  you're  trying  to  have  these  big  events, you're  trying  to  help  the  community, and  you  have  $200  to  do  it,  you  know? I  think  that's  another  thing I  want  to  kind  of  bring  attention  to. Thank  you.  Thank  you.  Thank  you. So,  we  may  take  you  should  address  that. Right. Well,  I  really  want  Chisholm  to  read those  two  questions  again,  and  hopefully, we  can  get  at  least  some  at  least  response to  at  least  one  of  those, so  you  can  go  ahead and  read  it  and  then  we'll  have  this  question, and  then  we'll  see  if  we  can  get any  response  for  those  two,  Okay? Just  Asia.  I  just  didn't  get  the  opportunity. But  thank  you  for  coming  up  here. I  see.  Thank  you  for  coming  up  here  and sharing  your  experience  and  also sharing  your  thoughts  and  perspectives. Like  I  said,  I've  been  writing  everything  down. So  I  appreciate  everything  you  said, specifically  about  increasing  our  collaboration with  you  all  when  it  comes  to  affirmative  action because  you  guys  are  the  experts. So  I  appreciate  you  a  bunch  and  I know  we  talked  a  couple  weeks  ago too,  and  I  appreciate  you. So  thank  you  for  sharing  those. I  agree  with  you  that  the  exposure to  some  of  the  work  that  some  of our  student  organizations  do  in the  Atlanta  community  specifically,  is  not  shared. I  mean,  how  many  people  in the  room  know  what  lifting  our  voices  is. And  if  you're  black,  do  not  raise  your  hand. So  like  that's  my  point. So  Lifting  Our  Voices  is  an  organization  on campus  that  has  helped  feed  over  2000  homeless  people. It's  students  who  are  doing  this, students  who  are  going  out buying  supplies  with  their  own  money, with  their  own  time  making  Midnight  Walmart  runs. I  was  talking  to  one  of  the  community  outreach chairs  last  week  making  Midnight  Walmart  runs  to buy  jars  and  jars  of  jars  of PB  and  J  to  feed  the  homeless  Atlanta  community. Nobody  knows  about  it.  At  least  no  students outside  of  the  black  community in  this  room  know  about  it. And  yet  they  have  been  working  so hard  in  our  Atlanta  community  unheard  of. Those  are  the  type  of  things  that  we  need to  as  an  institute,  as  organizations, as  peers,  as  leaders,  as  faculty, as  staff,  as  representatives of  something  bigger  than  ourselves. If  we  live  up  to  this  idea  of  progress  and  service, improving  the  human  condition,  that's  our  motto. That's  our  call  as  Georgia  Tech  community. We  have  to  be  able  to  uplift  others  as  well. So  thank  you  Asia  for  bringing  that  up. Yeah,  love  does,  lifting  our  voices, also  known  as  Love,  does  have  a  sandwich run  on  Saturday  on  campus. So  go  to  their  Instagram, find  the  information  show  up. So  I'll  read  those  questions  one  more time  just  to  let  everyone know  there  are  refreshments  in  the  back. So  if  you'd  like  to  grab  a  light  refreshment  as  you're thinking  about  this  and  then  continue to  line  up  and  ask  questions. But  again,  that  first  question,  it  is  important. It  has  been  an  impediment  that  students  applying  to American  universities  have  been  denied educational  opportunities because  of  the  color  of  their  skin. Do  you  believe  that  structural  inequities  and student  enrollments  continue  to  exist  and  why? And  then  the  second  question  was, in  the  face  of  ongoing  racial  barriers, how  can  Georgia  Tech  continue  to  facilitate meaningful  conversations  that  deal with  complex  issues  that  impact  students? If  you  know  of  any  current  methods or  forthcoming  actions,  please  share. So  I  hope  you  guys continue  to  think  about  that  as  you  fill your  stomachs  a  little  bit  and continue  to  ask  us  questions.  We  really  appreciate  it. What?  Hi,  can  you  hear  me? My  name  is  Kiara.  I'm  a  first  year international  affairs  major  with  a  minor  in  pre  law. And  as  an  international  affairs  major,  of  course, I  take  a  lot  of  liberal  arts  classes, public  policy,  international  affairs. And  I  obviously  very  tolerant  of conversations  dealing  with  political  issues of  people  or  from  people who  don't  agree  with  me,  who  do  agree  with  me. But  I  do  feel  that  there  is  an environment  in  these  classes  where people  feel  comfortable  saying racially  and  culturally  insensitive  things. And  I  just  feel  like  being the  urge  is  newly  created and  the  governance  forums  are  newly  created, this  would  be  the  perfect  place to  have  discussions  on  that  topic. And  if  y'all  would  be  open  to  have  discussions  on that  topic,  I'd  definitely  come  out. So  that  was  just  the  comment  I  wanted  to  make. That  sounds  perfect. Thank  you. Yeah,  we  can  definitely,  and  I'll  say, I  don't  know  if  this  is  still  picking  me  up, but  I'll  say  like,  we're  writing  that  down  and  like, thank  you  for  bringing  that  concern  up. And  like,  we  are  going  to take  these  concerns  and  what  you're  saying  to, you  know,  whoever  we  can. But  I  guess  I  kind  of  have  a  question. So  when  you  say  you  feel  like people  feel  comfortable  kind  of  saying, you  know,  a  little  bit  of  whatever. Do  you  think?  Is  it  facilitated  by  the  teachers? Like  do  you  think  it's  kind  of  institutionally or  is  it  just  like  the  students  are, is  it  more  student  initiated  or  are the  teachers  kind  of allowing  for  that  space,  do  you  think? I  don't  want  to  say  the  teachers intentionally  not  open  up  these  spaces, but  make  them  feel  comfortable. But  it's  more  so  that  the  professors  don't necessarily  draw  or  have  discernible  boundaries, whereas  something  is  inappropriate or  something  is  just  your  opinion. And  maybe  they  don't  feel  comfortable stepping  in  and  saying  that  for  fear  of mis  understanding  are  being  misconstrued. But  there  should  be  some  type  of  action  being taken  by  professors  because you  are  in  a  position  of  authority  and, you  know  this  is  your  classroom,  right? All  right,  thank  you.  We'll  bring  that  up.  Thank  you. Writing  that  down.  Thank  you. What's  up  everybody?  I'm  Kenny. I'm  a  second  year  mechanical  engineering  major. And  to  answer  your  questions, I  don't  necessarily  have  an  answer for  him.  I  just  have  a  comment. I  just  want  to  say  that  in  reference to  if  there's  a  problem  in Georgia  Tech  having  like a  administrative  problem  with  accepting  student  system. I  believe  that  for  there  to  actually  be  change that  the  institute  itself  has to  care  just  as  much  as  the  students  care. Like  all  represented  earlier  with  the  San.  Trend  that Students  can  only  do  so  much  on their  side  because  they  don't  have  the  power. The  people  with  the  power  have  to have  to  care  to  change  something. So  if  we  can  only  do  so  much  convincing  as  well. So  if  we're  going  to  be trying  to  convince  the  people  with the  power  to  try  and change  something  and  they're  not  being  convinced, then  we  have  to  put  people that  want  to  change  things  in  those  places  of  power. So  they  can  change  things  that  need  to  be  changed. So  for  example,  you  were  telling  a  story about  how  some  Dean had  all  of  these  initiatives  that  he  had, and  he  wanted  to  make  these  changes. And  you  had  his  plans,  and  then the  institute  just  pulled  the  funding  at  the  end. Like  there  has  to  be  people  that  have  the  power with  that  funding  that  want  to keep  that  funding  with  what, you  know  what  I'm  saying,  that  type  of  stuff. So  yeah,  that's  basically  all  I  had  to  say. If  we  want  to  change,  then  we  have  to  make the  people  that  have  the  power  to change  things  want  to  change  things. What's  your  name  again?  I'm  sorry,  I  didn't  hear  you. Kenny.  Kenny.  Okay.  Thank  you,  Kenny. So  I  do  want  to  challenge  you  just  a  little  bit,  Kenny. So  you  said  that  students  don't  have  that  much  power. And  to  an  extent  I  agree  with  you.  We  are  just  students. We're  not  paid  professionals  on  this  campus. We're  still  getting  our  degrees. But  look  at  the  room  you're  sitting  in  right  now. Do  you  know  how  many  administrators  are  sitting  here? You  know,  the  Provost  and  the President  are  getting  this  virtually. So  students  are  in  a  unique  position, in  a  sense,  where  I  agree  with  you. Georgia  Tech  has  to  care  for  things  to  change. But  students  have  the  opportunity to  get  Georgia  Tech  to  care. Because  at  the  end  of  the  day,  if an  institute  is  mission  is  students  first, students  are  our  priority. And  this  is  a  priority  of  the  students, then  thus  will  be  Georgia  Tech  priority  as  well. So  there  is  some  agency, there's  some  individual  agency  in this  that  says  as  individuals, we  all  have  to  play  our  role  as  well. That  doesn't  mean  that  things  are  perfect  automatically, and  it  doesn't  mean  that  things  happen  like  a  snap. But  we  do  have  a  lot  more  power  than  you  think  we  do. So  and  I  do  want  to  add  one  little  thing. I  will  say  also  one  thing  I  found  with  working  with the  administers  I've  worked  with,  they  do  care. Most  of  the  people  that are  at  our  institution  do  really  truly  care. And  it  is  unfortunate. And  the  position  we're  in  right  now  because  of,  you  know, recent  changes  in  policy, recent  things  going  on  in  the  nation. And,  you  know,  it really  is  actually  kind  of  falling  because  of  that, because  of  the  restrictions  that  are being  placed  on  these  administrators. It  may  seem  like  they  don't  care  because  what they  have  to  implement  because  of  these  policies. As  a  public  institution, there  are  things  that  our  school  just  has  to  do. And,  you  know,  even  if  our  missionaries  don't  like  it, they  have  to  do  it. But  because  of  that  kind  of  playing  off  of  witchism, said  the  power  is  kind  of  falling  off  to  us. It's  up  to  us  kind  of completely  to  make any  change  happen  because  at  this  point, administrators  don't  have  that  power  anymore. But  I  do  agree,  and  I  do  think,  you  know, at  some  point  there  are  a  lot  of things  that  we  want  to  get  done. It  will  take  the  administrators, but  I  am  pleased  to say  I  do  think  a  lot  of  them  are  on  our  side. So  I  think,  you  know, we  have  that  going  for  us.  Thank  you. One  thing  I  do  want  to  say  quickly  though, that  is  a  little  bit  on a  different  note  than  what  you  guys  said. I  do  want  to  urge  students  that we  I  feel  like this  is  something  I've struggled  with  while  I've  been  here. There  are  some  people  whose  job is  to  do  the  things  that  we're  doing. And  don't  make  it  your  job  to, of  course,  do  things  like  this,  have  those  conversations, push  them,  but  don't let  them  continue  to  look  at  you  to  do  their  work. Call  them  out  like,  no, I'm  actually  not  going  to  do  that  research. You  get  paid.  I'm  paying  to  be  here. No,  I  pay  your  salary. Please  do  what  you're supposed  to  do  when  it  comes  to  certain  things. 'cause  I  feel  like  a  lot  of  times, especially  black  student  leaders, they'll  keep  knocking  at  her  door  and your  door  only  as  if  no  one  else  has  a  voice. Ask  somebody  else  to  do  it. Get  somebody  else  to  do  it. Do  not  be  afraid  to  be  like  actually somebody  else  has  the  same  expertise  as  me. There's  other  black  students  who  are  living  day  by day  at  this  school  that  you  can  ask  their  opinion. That's  like  a  major  thing. I  feel  like  a  lot  of  black  students, leaders  here  get  burnt  out  because we're  doing  the  job  that  someone  is  paid  to  do, force  them  to  do  their  job. And  if  they  don't  make  noise  about  it, good  trouble  is  they  have  that neural  in  the  student  center. Good  trouble.  Make  it  continue  to  say  things. Even  if  you  feel  like  somebody might  be  trying  to  silence  you, they  don't  want  to  hear  it  go  big. Go  to  the  news.  I've  said I  have  been  on  the  news  and  said  stuff. I'm  sure  GT  min  is  like. Why  don't  she  just  like  do  it? You're  paying  to  be  at  the  school.  They  actually  can't. Well,  I  won't  say  they  can't  do  anything  to you,  but  they  shouldn't. But  sometimes  it  is  hard. Sometimes  it  is  somebody's  job to  do  it.  Make  them  do  their  job. If  you  feel  like  they're  trying  to  make  you  do  their  job, call  them  out  for  it  and  continue  to  like  make  ruckus. Because  we,  as  black  students, they  always  look  to  black  people  to  do  everything.  Sorry. All,  I'm  going  a  little  hard, It's  black  history  month, but  like,  no,  actually I'm  not  doing  that  because You  can  and  it's  okay  to  say  that. It's  really  okay  to  say  that. All  right.  Thank  you.  Y'all's  responses  are vary  in  site  and  I  really  appreciate  it.  All  right. Thank  you.  So  we  really  have  to  start  wrapping. I'm  gonna  honor  the  last  two  questions. We  want  to  stay  on,  you  know, topic  of  the  reason  why  we're  here  for  this  event. So  we're  going  to  take  these  last  two, give  you  time  to  mingle, have  some  refreshments, and  then  we're  going  to  close  out. And  please,  if  you  can't  make  it  brief,  Okay. Hello,  body.  My  name  is  Da  Sean  Taylor. I'm  a  fifth  year  computer  engineering  major  here, so  mine  it's  a  mixture  of  a  question  and  a  statement. The  first  thing,  I  really  want  to pick  you  back  off  what  you  just  said. I  would  just  like  to  remind  everybody  here, as  well  as  the  administrators  that  are  in  the  room  that, you  know,  our  motto  was  progress  in  service. And  I  think  that  a  part  of  that  history  beyond just  racial  relations,  minority  relation, things  of  that  nature,  is that  we've  been  known  for  pushing the  envelope  specifically  in terms  of  everything  that's happened  with  affirmative  action. And  I'm  not  as  involved as  I  used  to  because  I'm  just  busy  now. But  I've  been  heavily  involved  with the  Blackson  recruitment  team  since  I  got  here  in  2019. And  the  numbers, while  the  application,  things  like  that,  are  going  up, there  is  a  danger  to  our  yield  for our  minority  groups  from a  racial  standpoint.  And  that  concerns  me. And  yes,  we  are constrained  by  some  of  the  things that  happen  at  a  federal  and  state  level. There  are  regulations,  but  there  are avenues  and  ways  and  things  to look  at  to  kind  of  get  around  those  things. I  know  that  I've  heard talks  that  there's  not  as  much  comfort  with  funding for  things  like  Black  and Hispanic  like  recruitment  and  outreach  and  things like  that  just  because  of  the  labels associated  with  it  in  lieu  of  what happened  regarding  affirmative  action. But  there  are  other  ways  to  label  it, there  are  other  avenues  to  place  that  funding. There  are  ways  to  continue  these  things. It  is  difficult  to  go  out  to  those  schools  and  to talk  with  those  people  when you  don't  have  the  money  to  do  so. It's  difficult  to  keep certain  groups  that  aren't  necessarily registered  student  organizations  that  do  that  work when  the  institute  is  heavily worried  about  how  to  empower  them. So  I  would  just  like  to  implore  us as  students  to  come  up  with  ideas  and  to  push the  idea  that  we  are  an  institution  that  pushes  the  bill. But  also  to  remind  administration that  we  need  you  all  to  look  for  those, I  guess  loopholes  and things  of  that  nature  because  there  are  ways to  do  the  things  that  we  still  need  to do  without  breaking  the  rules  that  are  in  place. And  I  guess  that  also  goes  in  line  with  saying, do  you  still  feel  like  there  are  things  that  are any  forms  of  oppression  or  like barriers  in  lieu  of  that  decision? Yeah,  I  think  those  are  the  barriers. I  think  the  fear  is becoming  a  barrier  and  that there  are  ways  to  overcome  it. We  just  need  to  push  hard  to  do  that. Thank  you. I'm  Abigail  Tumpy. I'm  Vice  President  of  Institute  Communications. And  I  just  first  of  all, I  want  to  congratulate all  of  you  for  your  leadership  here. This  has  been  a  fabulous  discussion. I  actually  had  a  question  with  regards  to  your  thoughts, and  this  is  actually  builds great  on  the  last  person's  comment. I  also  am  really  concerned  about, I'm  concerned  about  our  black  student  admissions. I'm  concerned  about  where  we're  going  to potentially  be  headed  in  a  future  state. Thoughts  you  might  have  on how  we  can  continue  to  make  sure that  we're  going  up  in the  right  direction  regarding  undergraduate  admission. So  I'd  love  to  hear  that.  And  then  the  second  part  of  it, I  know  you  were  worried about  from  administration  was  here. I  will  tell  you,  I  met  a  lot  of these  events  and  so  you  might  not  know  me. I'm  new  to  the  institute. Just  joined  actually  seven  months  ago. Either  I'm  here  or  usually  a  member  of  my  team  is  here. And  we  care  very  deeply  about many  of  the  issues  that  you  guys  are  talking  about. I  will  also  tell  you  a  little  trick, which  is  a  lot  of  the  content  that  is created  on  social  media  is actually  user  generated  by  students. So  most  of  the  social  media  handles  at  Georgia  Tech, we  get  a  lot  of  that  content  because students  will  tag  us  and  we'll see  the  great  work  that  they're  doing  of  going  out and  feeding  homeless  people  in  the  Atlanta  area. And  then  we'll  pick  that  up  and  promote  it. So  there's  ways  like  that  that you  guys  can  simply  tag  us  to  let  us know  what  you  guys  are  doing  and  we're  able to  pick  that  up  and  share  some  of  that  information. So  look  forward  to  your  comments. Thank  you. In  the  nature  of  delegation, I'm  going  to  ask  Asia  to  come  up  here. She  is  expert  in  the  room  when  it  comes  to  recruitment. So  in  terms  of  Abigail, your  question  about  how  we  can  increase  or maybe  address  the  concerns  that  we have  in  terms  of  yield  with  our  POC  students. I'm  going  to  let  Asia  answer  that. Hi  everyone.  So  first  I  want  to  kind  of  just mention  how  Georgia's  text  process  is. So  we  do  something  called  holistic  admissions. Holistic  admissions  means  we  take  account  a, a  lot  of  factors  into  how  we  look, how  we  look  at  applications. This  includes  looking  at  your  GPA. This  includes  your  courses. How  heavy  was  your  workload? Are  you  taking  those  advanced  level  courses? We're  going  to  look  at your  involvement,  community  service. Are  you  in  clubs  and  organizations? Have  you  started  something?  Are  you  working? So  there's  not  a  one  size fits  all  when  it  comes  to  applications. So  there  is  no  such  thing  as,  oh, this  is  the  perfect  student, and  they're  just  going  to  get  in  here, that's  not  going  to  happen. How  can  we  increase  our  yard  efforts  first? Like  I  said  before, how  we're  doing  in  BS,  R,  T,  now  getting  uncomfortable. One,  you  have  to  acknowledge  the  needs  of black  students  in  general. Are  we  providing  financial  services for  students  when  they  come  here? Yeah,  they  get  in.  But  can, can  they  afford  to  be  here? Can  they  afford  the  deposits? Can  they  afford  housing? Because  if  you  go  back  and  look, there's  gonna  be  some  other  colleges  who  are  going  to give  them  a  little  bit  more  money  than  we  are. Just  that's  just  bottom  line. Another  way  it  increases, go  to  these  neighborhoods  that  are minority  driven  that  you've  been  scared  to  before. Are  we  going  and  teaching  these  students  at their  freshman  and  sophomore  year how  they  can  be  more  advanced? Are  we  looking  at  can  we  increase the  amount  of  Stem  activities  we  give  to  those  students? One  and  another  thing  is  also making  sure  that  this  campus  is  a  good  environment  for these  students  to  come  into  Numbers  do  not  matter  if they  are  not  taking  care  of  once they  get  here  and  they're  going  to  see  it. That  includes  being  more  diverse and  how  you're  talking  about  our  institution, how  you  are  presenting  our  institution. As  far  as  tours  go,  I  know  us  as  BSRT. We  have  created  our  own  tours  and  we've  also  worked  with student  ambassadors  to  make their  tours  more  diverse  and  more  equitable. Are  you  respecting  or highlighting  the  different  black  student  organizations? We  talked  about  D  nine  before all  tonight  showing  students that  there  is  a  community  here. This  was  really  important as  far  as  this  yield  effort  goes. Now,  is  affirmative  action  going  to  harm  numbers? That's  just,  that's  just  how  it's  going  to  be. It's  the  Supreme  Court  decision. There's  only  so  much  you  can  do. I  suggest  that  you  go  back  and actually  read  that  decision  and  also  go  look at  what's  happening  on  the  state  level.  As  far  as. Another  thing  you  can  help  yod authors  is  work  with  our  team, the  Blackson  recruitment  team reach  out  to  me  at  any  time. You  can  reach  out  to  my  advisors, Kevin  Dodson  and  Larry  Greta, as  well  as  the  Hispanic  recruitment  team  as  well reach  out  to  us  because there's  already  initiatives  being  put  in  place. There's  work  that's  already  been  done that  we  would  love  to  collaborate  on. We  would  love  to  come  and  talk  to  you, talk  to  students,  or  talk  to  student  organizations, how  you  can  get  more  involved. We  can  explain  affirmative  action  a  little  bit  further, but  I  feel  like  it's  going  to  be  required a  hands  on  from  all  places, from  student  organizations  to  students  administration. Everyone  should  care  about  this  just  as  much  as  we  do. I  hope  that  answers  the  question. I  can  get  a  little  bit  more  detail  if  I  need. That  was  good. Thank  you.  Thank  you. Thank  you,  Adria.  Okay,  so  that concludes  the  second  ever  urge  governance  forum. Thank  you  all  so  much  for  coming  again. Enjoy  refreshments. If  you  were  unable  to  ask a  question  at  this  point  in  time  or, you  know,  you  just  thought,  had  a  thought. After  hearing  some  of  the  discussion  we  had, feel  free  to  approach  any  of  us  at  any  time. I  am  really  bad.  Like  I  give up  my  number  out  to  everyone,  it's  kind  of  bad. Um,  but  I  do  mean  it  in  the  sense of  like  I  want  you  all  to  feel  that  you have  access  to  the  students who  are  up  here  right  now  who  want  to  hear  from  you. Who  want  you  to  be  a  part  of  what  we're  doing. So  you  guys  are  already sitting  here  in  this  room.  That's  step  one. And  continuing  to  uplift your  voices  and  all  your  various  organizations  and  all  of your  involvements  as  you do  is  only  going  to  help  as  we  progress  our  mission. So  the  next  Urged  Governance  Forum  will be  in  March  at  Omed  as  posted  on  our  Instagram. So  we'll  be  here. There's  always  going  to  be  the  space. Can  I  say  something  real  quick?  I  run. I  just  want  to  say  like  I'm  blown  away  by all  the  students  here  and  y'all  are  doing  amazing  work. And  I  think  the  reminder, I  just  want  to  have  leave  for  you  guys  as the  university  archivist  is  like  what  you  are  doing right  now  at  Georgia  Tech is  literally  the  stuff  that  students will  come  into  our  reading  room  and ask  About  20  years  from  now, so  maybe  even  ten  years  from  now. So  what  you  are  doing  like  document,  document,  document. And  if  you  want  help,  we  will  help  you. This  is  the  exact  kind  of  stuff that  our  archives  is  lacking, but  this  is  how  we  make  sure  that the  history  that  we  have  here  is  more  inclusive. So  I  just  want  to  say  that  I'm  a  great  job. Yeah,  so  thank  you. I  want  to  wrap  by  saying  reckoning  with  the  past. That  was  a  lot  to  even  hear  about. And  all  of  these  things  that  we're  doing  this  evening, all  of  your  participation  will  help  us all  realize  a  better  future  for  how  we  move  forward. Thank  you  all  for  coming. Thank  you  all  online  for joining  us  and  have  a  good  evening. I'm  sorry.  I'm  sorry. I  want  to  thank  our  presenters. I'm  sorry,  I  was  supposed  to  be  a  partis. Sam  Bolton,  Chisholm  Mcgee, Alex  Brinson,  Camille,  and  Adeba. Thank  you  all  for  accepting this  invitation  for  coming  and  collaborate  on this  Black  History  Month  event with  us  here  at  the  library.  Thank  you  so  much.