One day after around 30 MTSU students marched upon the University President's house, a student group made public a list of demands stemming from the name and the controversy surrounding Forrest Hall
The group calls itself the Talented Tenth, a historical term coined to represent African American leaders.
"Students have been fighting about this name since 1968 and here we are in 2016 and were still fighting over the same issue," said Talented Tenth spokesperson and political science major Arionna White.
Members are angry the current process to possibly change the name Forrest Hall has taken months. In the fall Dr. Sidney McPhee commissioned a student, staff and alumni panel to host public forums and deliberate on a recommendation, due by the end of April.
"I'd much rather engage in the democratic process which is what our country's all about rather than being a dictator," Dr. McPhee said in an interview with NewsChannel 5 Friday.
Dr. McPhee left a lecture when he heard students were protesting at his house Thursday night.
"They expressed their feelings about the issue and I listened," he said.
He says he supports some of their ideas, especially those regarding more diversity on campus. But he can't make certain promises, such as increasing black faculty by 30 percent in all departments just two years, as demanded.
"Some degree of reality needs to be a part of this discussion," he said, "there's some areas of discipline where they don't have five percent African Americans in those disciplines (right now)."
The students are also demanding Senator Ketron, who they say is pro Forrest Hall, be kicked off the task force.
"He shouldn't have been put on the task force in the first place," White said. But McPhee argued it would be a slippery slope to start eliminating panel members because they hold an opinion one way or the other.
"Senator Ketron is one vote, one voice on the committee," said McPhee.
Students say it's coming off as if Dr. McPhee doesn't care about their concerns. White brought up one of the public forums where African American students say white community members made racial slurs and discriminatory jokes. McPhee has not be present at any of the forums, he says, so as not to sway the process.
"He's listening to people who graduated in 1974,75 and basing his results off of that," said White, "that's not really fair you don't go here anymore."
Above all, students say they want a formal apology.
"Even if he just follows the first demand of personally and formally apologizing it will ease the situation a little bit," White said, when asked if any of the demands is more important that the others.
But McPhee said at this point he doesn't see a reason to make an apology.
"There are things that I have control over as a university president, and if I think a mistake was made then that would be under consideration," he said.
The Talented Tenth demanded a response by April 8. Dr. McPhee says he will respect them enough to respond and will most likely invite them to speak in person.
