In early June 1987, Chancellor Jack Reese appointed a 13-member Task Force on Race Relations to study the quality of life for African Americans at UT. Reese indicated that it was a dual issue, stating in a Daily Beacon report, “There are some perceptual problems that need to be addressed and there are some real problems.” Otis Cochran, associate professor of law, chaired the group (resigning his post as chair of the Commission for Blacks to take on the new assignment). Others appointed were Dyhana Ziegler, assistant professor of broadcasting and chair of the Black Faculty-Staff Association; Johnetta Smith, secretary in the UT Police Department and member of the Employee Relations Council; Anita Jenious, president of the Black Law Students Association; Clint Allison, professor of curriculum and instruction and former president of the Faculty Senate; Emmett Edwards, local businessman and president of the Knoxville Urban League; John Morrow, professor and head of the Department of History; James Bussell, local business and civic leader; C. Warren Neel, dean of the College of Business; Jack Walker, local business and civic leader; Robert Greenberg, director of Career Planning and Placement; Howard Kirkland, senior in Arts and Sciences from Loudon, Tennessee; and Ida Jones, senior in engineering from Memphis. The task force issued its report on February 26, 1988—a 52-page report containing 22 recommendations.
Among recommendations were the following: printing a specific infraction provision for racial slurs, epithets, and related activities in Hilltopics [statement for inclusion in Hilltopics approved by the UT Board of Trustees in June 1988]; forming a University Civil Rights Commission; establishing a Race Relations Institute; hiring a vice chancellor for minority affairs; and stepping up efforts to “effectively and completely integrate the Athletics Department and associated programs, including cheerleading squads and bands.” Chancellor Jack Reese responded to the report in May, agreeing to implement or study many of the recommendations but declining to appoint a vice chancellor for minority affairs because “the creation . . . would tend to lessen the sense of responsibility all university officers must have in meeting the goals of affirmative action. That commitment must be an integral part of everyone’s performance.”