More than 70 faculty, staff, students, alumni and trustees participated in a focus workshop to help create a comprehensive interpretive plan for Clemson University. The project stemmed from the work of the Implementation Team to address the recommendations of the Board of Trustees History Task Force in a cohesive and sustainable way. Over the course of three days, nationally known interpretive planner John Veverka facilitated small-group discussions that focused on identifying and prioritizing the stories we want to tell and how to tell them. The implementation team is now working with the Boudreaux Group – an architecture, design and master planning company based in Columbia – to turn the ideas into a plan for campus review.

The National Parks Service defines interpretation as communication that conveys the significance and underlying meaning of a place. It’s about understanding, not just knowing. It connects the tangible (a building, landscape or event) and the intangible (an idea, core value or strategic goal). The plan will be a management tool that identifies stories, sites where stories can be told, events when they can be told and media for delivering them – such as signs, tours, phone apps or publications.