Interim provost Matt Lee decided on April 4 to hire a third-party curator to look at what LSU College Dems called “incomplete racist exhibits” at the William A. Brookshire Military Museum. 
Political Science freshman Landon Zeringue and International Trade and Finance sophomore Cooper Ferguson are officers in College Dems and met with Lee in early April in response to a statement released by College Dems on March 11 addressing the exhibits.
The statement said the LSU administration continues to “ignore and suppress student demands” and requests the racist exhibits be temporarily removed. If demands were not met, the club planned to protest the opening of the museum on Thursday.
College Dems called off Thursday’s protest upon seeing that the LSU administration is cooperating with the club’s demands.
As part of the plans discussed in the meeting between the administration and College Dems, Lee will compile a list of third-party curators for Zeringue and Ferguson to help choose from. Lee is also committed to releasing all of the curator’s recommendations to the museum while also having a public dialogue with students.
Ferguson said he is expecting to receive the list of curators sometime next week and that he will have continued meetings with Lee to properly address the situation.
Lee delivered a statement Tuesday to the Reveille.
“I appreciate the students bringing their thoughtful perspective on the military museum exhibits to us,” Lee said. “We had a very productive conversation and Academic Affairs intends to treat this as a learning opportunity for all of us. We will invite an expert on curating sensitive historical artifacts to provide a forum for our community on best practices so we can learn together and provide an environment that is welcoming and educational to all members of our community.”
Ferguson said he wants the entire process to be public, including meetings, decisions, and communication. He believes a public process is vital to effective action from the administration.
“We expressed to the provost and the other administrators that attended this meeting that we want this to be a public process, and we want to see tangible action on their end,” Ferguson said. “In a campus as large as LSU and in an environment where administration is usually so secretive as LSU administration is, I feel very content with this result.” 
Zeringue was pleased that the administration was receptive during the meeting. Until the list of curators is created, Zeringue says he will wait for further outreach.
“I know there’s other things that require change on campus,” Zeringue said. “This is just one small issue out of a good bit about things we can do better —things we can change. As much as it is good to see this and hopefully see the process go through, I’m more looking forward to what we can do next.”