by Avery Boulware, Campus Carrier News Editor

COURTESY OF BERRY ARCHIVES

An aerial view of Berry’s campus during early construction. On the left is the Berry College Chapel and towards the front is Thomas Berry Hall.

At the end of last semester, the Carrier published a proposal written by Michael Bailey, associate professor of Government and International Studies. In it, Bailey proposed that Berry institute a scholarship for one or more students of Native American descent in order to draw attention to the history of Berry’s land through which the Cherokee marched during the Trail of Tears, long before Martha Berry began her school.

“A scholarship would help remind us of the history of this place while also acknowledging our indebtedness to others for the hardships they suffered that made this place open to all of us who live here today,” Bailey said. 

Bailey said he decided to propose the scholarship through the Carrier instead of bringing it straight to advancement, for example, where “it would have been altogether easy to table it without people knowing about it.” Through a newspaper article, however, he was able to write about the history in a way that a formal proposal would not have allowed.

Since the publication of his proposal, Bailey received a variety of feedback from faculty and staff as well as former students, all of whom he chose to keep anonymous. 

“The feedback was decidedly positive,” Bailey said.

He also heard from three administrators, two of whom gave positive feedback while one found some problems with the proposed scholarship.

“I think there was concern that I made too much of Berry’s landholdings with respect to being a distinctive part of Berry, as well as misrepresenting the actual amount of our endowment that comes from land,” Bailey said. 

President Stephen R. Briggs expressed concern about interpretations of Bailey’s research and also said that parameters of the scholarship would be hard to define, including how far back a student is descended from a Cherokee relative. 

Briggs also wanted to clarify that Berry’s trust does not come from the land.

“Most of the land itself was acquired during the Great Depression,” Briggs said. “Most of it was land no one wanted to buy. Most of it is wooded hillside. It was when we bought it, and is still today.”

Bailey explained that his goal was not to portray Berry in a negative light, especially since Berry cannot control what happened on their land before it was purchased by the college.

“My chief purpose in the letter and the scholarship proposal itself was less about reparations for past wrongdoing than it was to promote knowledge about the history of our shared home here in Northwest Georgia,” Bailey said. “A scholarship would help remind us of the history of this place while also acknowledging our indebtedness to others for the hardships they suffered that made this place open to all of us who live here today.”

Briggs discussed a lack of adequate research about the scholarship. 

“I don’t know if there are local Native Americans without the opportunity to go to college,” he said. “If there are, that would be a group that we are interested in.” 

Briggs also said there was potential for the Gate program, as well as others, to potentially serve this community.

One faculty member praised the letter but voiced concern about the selectivity of the proposal, according to Bailey.

“(This colleague) believed that many different groups have suffered hardship and it was tricky if not impossible to sort out those groups worthy of a scholarship and those who were not,” Bailey said. “This is a reasonable view, and though I believe that the history of this place has a unique connection to a particular group, the Cherokee Nation, I understand the reasoning behind the critique.”

Bailey said he will not personally further this cause unless he gets support from administration, but is glad that this could be a learning opportunity for everyone at Berry.

“Above all, I thought this was an interesting part of Berry’s history and identity that was not known by many people, including myself,” he said. “I thought it would be an educational moment.”