Charge 4: Recommend potential communication tactics and or strategies to memorialize the history of “The Eyes of Texas”

Charge 4 presents the committee and the University an opportunity to ensure that the countless hours of research, dialogue, deliberation and understanding are appropriately understood and memorialized. Our work has made clear the importance of fact and equally, the importance of respectful dialogue, even when people view the facts through fundamentally different lenses. We understand and expect reasonable, thoughtful people to view our work and arrive at different conclusions. That, we believe, is where theconversation must begin. It is our hope that this report provides the framework for healthy discussion and ongoing understanding.

The work of this committee is important because, we hope, it will be a catalyst for conversation and an opportunity for our community to come together on challenging conversations, particularly about the history of our state, our University and our most cherished traditions.

The committee considered nearly one hundred ideas to include in this section. Below, we have identified a number of ideas that we, as a committee, believe are not only appropriate based on our charge, but important for the administration to consider and to implement. We understand that while the history of our University, our band, our athletic program and our alma mater will not change, the University can impact and affect positive change by acting on the recommendations in this report while continuing to address any inequities that exist in our university community and its culture.

Through our conversations, it has become clear that without facts and clarity, there will still be potential for division. Even with this report, that divide may remain –but it will be framed by facts grounded in history, rather than assumptions and narratives without factualbasis. Thus, the core of our findings in this charge focus on preserving the report, ensuring its access and protecting its place in our history so our current and future generations can have a place to learn, reflect and host challenging conversations about the past, and more important, the future. We humbly present 40 recommendations for the 40 Acres in response to Charge 4.