A Plan for Action

The Tu White School of Architecture proposes actions which can be taken by any institution of White privilege and power to recognize its responsibilities and its role in reconstructing American architecture. In that spirit, TWSA addresses the following four proposals to the trustees and administrators of its namesake, the Tulane School of Architecture:

1. Reparation

   To create a committee of the Board of Administrators to study a comprehensive program of reparation for the Tulane School of Architecture, which could include but would not be limited to:

   Renaming Richardson Memorial Hall to honor someone/something/someplace other than a member of the Richardson family, whose wealth was derived from the labor of 148 people enslaved on his family’s plantation in Terrebonne Parish

   Living wages and the economic privileges associated with tenured professorship – pension, childcare, scholarship access for themselves and their descendants – for all TSA employees and contractors (specifically including maintenance, janitorial and food service staff)

   Commitment to supporting research, design and education projects revealing the stories of people who were enslaved:

   • By the pre-Tulane donation University of Louisiana (1834-emancipation)

   • By Paul Tulane personally

   • On the Foucher plantation (where the Uptown campus now stands)

   • The design and construction of a monument/memorial to these people at a prominent location on campus (see Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia)

   For more on the subject of Tulane and reparations, please see ‘“What happened to the people”: 1838 sale of 272 people challenges universities to evaluate ties to enslavement’, by Canela Lopez, for the Tulane Hullabaloo.

   For more on the history of the public University of Louisiana, racially integrated like all public institutions under the Louisiana Constitution of 1868, and its privatization and reorganization under the Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund as an institution solely for “the education of White young persons” in 1884 - a position Tulane defended until 1963 - see Tulanelink. This website includes a proposal for reparations to descendants of people enslaved by the family of Tulane founder Randall Lee Gibson.

2. Representation

   To hire six Black tenure-track faculty by the beginning of the fall semester of 2021, and to maintain or exceed that number of Black faculty thereafter, as a part of a general improvement in recruitment and retention of faculty of color, with no less than half of these new faculty to be women or nonbinary.

   For more on the challenges faced in academia by Black women specifically, see Pridde, Palmer, Silverstein, and BrckaLorenz’ Centering Black Women Faculty: Magnifying Powerful Voices. For more on the double standards affecting Black faculty, see Dr. Jessica Henry, Simone Hicks, and LaMarcus Hall’s article in Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

   For a list of directories and recommended strategies for recruiting Black faculty and other faculty of color, see UNC Charlotte’s page Where to Find Under-Represented Minority Faculty Candidates for Your Search.

   To quadruple the percentage of Black students in the undergraduate and graduate programs by the fall of 2024, from the 2000-2017 average of 3.2% to 13%, and maintain or exceed that percentage of Black students thereafter, as a part of a general improvement in recruitment and retention of students of color.

   For more on potential strategies to achieve #2 and #3, see Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton’s book When Ivory Towers Were Black.

3. Relevant Education

   To follow the guidelines of the National Architecture Accreditation Board, 2004 ed., Section 3.1.4, “The accredited degree program must demonstrate how it prepares students to practice and assume new roles and responsibilities in a context of increasing cultural diversity, changing client and regulatory demands, and an expanding knowledge base,” by ensuring culturally relevant history, theory, and practice education which engages with past, present and future conditions existence and authorship in the built environment by Black people and other people of color.

   See Dr. Amber Wiley’s talk at the 2015 Black in Design conference for more on NAAB requirements for culturally relevant architectural education.

4. Reporting

   To create an oversight body composed of four current students, four alumni, and four faculty or administrators, no less than half female or nonbinary, who will verify the proper steps are taken to achieve the above steps, with progress reported quarterly to the students, faculty, and alumni of the School, in perpetuity.

These reports, compiled into a publication, should document qualitatively, through art, writing and other means, the experiences of students, faculty and staff who identify as White, Black and of other racial & ethnic backgrounds through surveys and interviews, and document quantitatively through enrollment and employment statistics the progress made in hiring and recruitment. This publication will serve also as a record of student engagement with identity, power, politics and curriculum, and as an ever-expanding record of architectural transformation.