You belong to a student committee at the University of South Carolina-Aiken whose purpose is to explore and understand the feelings and attitudes about the Alumni House (from a student perspective). Some students have expressed concerns that the Alumni House does not belong on campus. They say that the Alumni House (previously known as the Pickens-Salley House) represents slavery/oppression. Many colleges and universities are acknowledging and examining critically their institutional ties to slavery, segregation, racism and discrimination. One attempt USCA leadership made to alleviate frustration and concerns about the house, was the re-naming of the house to reflect how the house is used current day—to house the Alumni staff, amongst other offices. However, many students still refer to it as the Pickens-Sally House and is still largely viewed as problematic.

While student concerns are valid, this presents a difficulty because the Alumni House is on the National Register as a Historic House. Furthermore, the story of the Alumni House seems to only be half told amongst students at USCA. Governor Andrew Pickens had the house built in the early 1900s and he was a slave-owner—this is the problematic but more well-known history of the house. However, Eulalia Salley, a women’s rights activist and leading Aiken businesswoman, later purchase the home. It was Salley’s family that donated the home to USCA in 1990. Some local community members see the Alumni House as a house full of history and wish to remember Salley’s accomplishments. However, the USCA student community seems to largely to remember and associate Pickens with the house.

With the Alumni House being considered a historic house, it is most unlikely the house will be removed from campus. Faculty committees have looked at how best the Alumni House can be utilized by the USCA and Aiken community. Ideas have included: using the space as a museum to those who lived in the house, using the house for diversity and inclusion events, as well as creating an exhibit that focuses specifically on celebrating successful women in the area. Still, some students seem leery of hosting events at the Alumni House. Furthermore, when racist issues appear on campus, the Alumni House sometimes gets brought up in those conversations of racism, making the issue of the house one that needs to be better understood and addressed.

Because it is unlikely for the Alumni House to be removed from campus, USCA leadership and faculty want to know what student’s perceptions of the house are currently and how those perceptions could be changed. There is a possibility for the Alumni House to be used for a different purpose than it is currently, but leadership has not been able to agree on what it’s new function would be.

what our group decided are many ideas examples:

1.turn in into a museum and start a new history ( but the propblem is it will still carry the past history)
2. Move the house to another area but still the past is still there.
3. turn the house into a place where student can hang out and make gaming rooms and movies night so the student can enjoy there time and maybe that will change the history

Also one of the issues was we can not change the decoration of the house because its historic

talk about this ideas in the essay paper