There was a Wall Street Journal article last night discussing last year’s protests at Yale, and the controversy regarding whether Calhoun College at Yale should be renamed (Calhoun was a supporter of slavery). The article then points out that Elihu Yale, its founder, was not just a supporter of slavery, but directly transported slaves himself:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-college-formerly-known-as-yale-1470698364
So what should Yale students do with this knowledge? Here are some options:
- Go all in with protesting, and rename Yale itself!
- Realize that renaming Yale will devalue their degree and stick to meaningless acts of protest, like renaming Calhoun College.
- Realize that protesting historical figures to the point of removing their names, even though their views were mainstream at the time, suggests a lack of maturity not befitting elite college students.
- Keep the names as is, but add historical context about their behaviors that are no longer considered acceptable today.
Any other options?
I have no affiliation w Yale, but I am disturbed by the whitewashing (no pun intended) of history. Instead of pretending historical figures didn’t exist, why not learn about both their good/visionary/philanthropic parts and their not so savory parts?
I’m not convinced you can judge historic figures by today’s standards.
Since we have no idea what the norms will be 200 years from now, we cannot be expected to act according to them.
The same understanding should be granted by us to those historical figures.
I am embarrassed by the special snowflake children who attend the school and the enabling administration. if you hate yale so much, do not attend. (nobody is forced to attend and many people would gladly take your spot) the disprect for the dean by the screeching speical snowflake with her imagenry cause was beyond words. she should have been expelled.
We aren’t talking about the Halloween incident, Zobroward. We are talking about something else.
It is over the top IMO. I like suggestion 4. No one suggests that Mark Twain should be disowned as a great American writer because of his use of the now-unacceptable N word in his American classics. I read the books to my kids and we had a long discussions about how the word is totally unacceptable now but wasn’t at the time. There are of course degrees of offensiveness, and I do think some instances of renaming are justified. But oftentimes the historical figure enabled positive changes. By all means educate the public about the wrongs of various historic figures, but focus in the good they did.
Going a little off topic, I volunteer at a historic site of one of the Founding Fathers. This FF owned slaves, but his views changed over time. Before he died, all his slaves were freed. He advocated for a concept called manumission, a forerunner of the abolition movement. No one would deny this man’s importance to the Consititution of the U.S. or his involvement in founding our government. Of course it was wrong that he owned slaves, but it wasn’t wrong in the eyes of people who lived in that time. No one is suggesting that any of the buildings or mountains named after him be renamed. If colleges begin renaming all the buildings named after a historical person who actually did good, at what point does this stop? Thomas Jefferson founded UVA. Is anyone suggesting it be renamed becasue he owned slaves? I do think college students need to get off their high horse sometimes.
Or at the very least - if you object to it so much, by all means don’t avail yourself of their tainted money.
Gee, remember way way back when women weren’t allowed at Yale? What should we do right that wrong?
So it was righted. But no one has erased the several hundred years worth of Yale history in which only men were present.
I think it is a scary trend to make history disappear.
Fwiw, there is a small movement like this at Northwestern re John Evans, who was a governor of Illinois and one of the founders of Northwestern. The town of Evanston is named after him and there are various important campus buildings named John Evans, including the alumni center. Turns out he was involved in the Sand Creek Massacre. Not cool. But what are you going to do? Rename the whole city?
I don’t think you’ll find any important historical American college that doesn’t have similar stories of founders and/or benefactors who did things we consider unacceptable today.
Since half the point of Huckleberry Finn was Finn learning that Jim was a person just like him, and the use of the N word was critical to that transition, I’ve never understood the objection.
I don’t think renaming everything is the solution, though I am open to the idea of renaming some things. I’d rather we learned about the very dubious history of some of our favorite colleges.
I don’t think Tufts should get any special brownie points just because it was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
smith college is only women in 2016 time to “right” that?
so what if yale was male only that was what they used to do.how do you judge people from 200-300 years ago by what we think is correct in the 21st century? of course these worries over yester year are American college students problems (it means they do not have to many real major problems to deal with)
^^^We must never make young people feel “uncomfortable”.
“We have spoken. We are speaking. Pay attention.”
Based on past performance, I would have to say option 1 is most likely. Not that it would gain any traction, but it’s not any crazier than demands to purge white male poets from the study of English literature or demands that student activist be paid for the time they spend protesting on campus…
In Canada McGill University is named for James McGill. He made his fortune in fur trading. Animal rights activists there have demanded that the school be renamed because of this “dirty money”.
^ They could keep the “M” – call it Mink University, maybe? 
Can someone find any elite college who has no “unsavory” (by today’s standards) people in its past?
If I were king of Dunkin Donuts I would just refuse to do business in Saudi Arabia. If you are there you have to follow the rules.
My father was a diplomat and for a while his area was the Middle East - my mother told him if he got assigned to Saudi Arabia, she was staying home. He ended up moving back to East African affairs which they both loved.
Frances Willard is also a big shot at Northwestern (major dorm, home is a historic landmark in the community). On the pro side: first Dean of Women in the 1870s, instrumental in women’s suffrage, all over women’s empowerment, statue in the Rotunda in Wash DC, presaged Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman by 100 years. On the con side: founded the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, thus ruining plenty of frat parties, and we all know how poorly prohibition turned out. Do we honor her or throw stones at her?
I am surprised by so much vitriol against young people standing up for what they believe and trying to peacefully enact change. Agree or disagree, this is an admirable trait.
I am offended by the idea that because they go to a highly selective school that they should shut up and be grateful.
I am baffled that people don’t realize this is exactly the kind of behavior to be expected by the future leaders Yale makes a tremendous effort to admit.
I am certain none of these kids want to ban Huckleberry Finn