I disagree. There’s nothing about slaves or slavery described on Yale’s Residential Colleges/Communities websites.
People are erroneously taking offense where none was intended. Manufactured outrage.
Suddenly, I’m glad my son did not attend Princeton.
Any college administration that allows one group of students to wag the dog for everyone is not where I want my son to be.
I hope this movement implodes on its own entitled attitude. People are already losing sympathy for students’ acting out.
Maybe if a few professors called their bluff and started giving F’s while they are missing class/doing the sit-in thing or if coaches revoked athletic scholarships and sent people home when students refused to play, they would think twice about being rude and disruptive.
Interesting point posted on Yale Daily News website…
“The term “Master” in the manner used by Yale dates back to the 12th Century and the “Rise of the University”. The term is derived from the mediaeval guilds (trades) and refers to a “Master of the trade” as opposed to journeyman or apprentice. The student at the college (or university) was considered an apprentice and the professor the master, just as in the trades (the term “Master of the Degree” or Masters Degree comes from this). The term is not racist and it would be helpful if the students at Yale learned a bit of history during their time there.”
Master has nothing to do with slavery. It was us being Anglophiles and adopting the usage of Oxford and Cambridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_%28college%29
Everyone has got some bad and some good in them. It would be pretty hard to find someone to name a college after that no one would object to.
You cannot (and should not) erase our nation’s history or that of our universities, which have some ugly roots many are unaware of (http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/ebony-and-ivy-9781608193837/). Rather than wish it all away or scrub it from the academy, wouldn’t it be better to study that history fully and “reappropriate” what some of those problematic names and legacies have come to mean?
Yes, Wilson was a racist, but he was also the inspiration for School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, which wasn’t actually named for him until 18 years later (http://wws.princeton.edu/about-wws/our-history). But the Wilson School is a unique entity today, apart from President Wilson. Like it or not, it’s a “brand” to a great degree and has great meaning to most of its graduates, no doubt, irrespective of their feelings for the man himself.
Some of these students seem to be lacking critical analysis skills. Do they actually represent the majority of Princeton students or even the majority of URMs on campus? I’m skeptical.
“Master has nothing to do with slavery.”
It is guilty by association. I hope they can change Master’s degree to Head degree. Head of Arts, Head of Science,
There is at least one “black girl” who doesn’t agree with the protesters.
http://dailyprincetonian.com/opinion/2015/11/we-must-not-erase-woodrow-wilson/
So if I understand correctly, it is very important to consider the context of the use of the word “master” at places like Princeton and Harvard and ignore, but the same does not apply to a word like “thug”?
" but the same does not apply to a word like “thug”?
“Thug” can take “Master”'s spot.
Well, if ‘master’ is a bad word, then ‘campus’ is no good either. Comes from the latin “field”, which conjures up, well, you know. Even worse is that a quick google showed that, gasp, Princeton was the first place the term was supposedly used. [/sarcasm]
This whole wordplay drives me nuts.
Hope all these ivy league schools succumbing to these manufactured-outrage demands realize they’re showing preference to those who fail to exhibit critical thinking skills. Is that really how they wish to present their once presitigious institutions of higher learning?
There is no wordplay, “master” literally means “owner of slaves.” Of course as others point out, if you look at the context, “Master” as used at Princeton and Harvard always had a very different meaning. So the question is how relevant if the former definition at Princeton and Harvard. I don’t think the answer is so easy to come up with.
I wonder if anyone will clam to be the mastermind behind the protest.
Sure it is. One either has critical thinking skills and can comprehend context, or one does not. The ivy league schools are showing their preference for the latter. Poor form.
I choose to master words. I don’t let them master me.
To me it comes down to whether the figure for the whom the building is named is largely or primarily known for their racism/sexism/anti-semistism/homophobia or is better known for their more positive contributions. If we were talking about a Leni Reifenstahl Film School or David Duke Social Sciences Building I’d be right there with the protesters, but for instance, I just can’t see renaming a building named for MLK or JFK because they were womanizers, despite the fact that I find that behavior reprehensible.
I’d also be more sympathetic to the protesters if this were an issue of naming a new building. To erase a century school history (and let’s not forget that Wilson was the president of Princeton, not just of the US) strikes me as revisionist and wrongheaded. Wilson, for all his deep faults, helped create the modern university these students were so very eager to attend.
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Master means, literally, lots of things. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/master has 23 definitions for the noun alone.
What about Master Sergeant? Master Copy? Master Key? Master at Arms? MasterCard? All perfectly valid and understood. So yes, it’s all wordplay by insisting that Princeton’s usage is somehow offensive.
Princetonians have outsmarted themselves.
I’m amused at how shocked, shocked posters are on this thread. There’s a long tradition of student protests in this country. From free speech and civil rights to anti-Vietnam war, feminism and anti-apartheid movements - students have been rallying around causes for a very long time. Often, quite successfully. Princeton is simply the latest to take up the anti-racism cause, and the poshest to suddenly wake up to the ugly side of America’s history and the fact that some of our most famous schools have, for example, racist and slave-owning founders/supporters.
Personally, I’m glad students’ activities on campus go beyond binge drinking on frat row or feeling smug in the eating club of your choice.
Princeton doesn’t offer athletic scholarships