Our university’s history includes much to celebrate, and we talk frequently about these positive stories. Today, however, we must reckon with something we should all regret: the history of racism and exclusion on our campus.
Last fall, following the deadly violence in Charlottesville, I charged an ad-hoc study group to look into the history of UW-Madison student organizations that bore the name of the Ku Klux Klan.
I asked them to help our campus in understanding this history and to suggest how we can best remember and redress it. If we are to be a welcoming and inclusive community, we have to confront the injustices of the past.