Well it looks like my previous post was deleted, so let me emphasize the point this time:
Can any of you who oppose renaming the hall, instead of just mocking it as ridiculous or conjuring one-liner slippery slopes, actually explain what the tangible harm the action would take? Because it seems like it would repair Yale’s PR, even if you don’t think there’s any ethical imperative. Are you afraid of pissing off some descendants of Calhoun or something?
I too, enjoy the humor here. No need to take it back-channel. Keep it here- most get it and seem to enjoy it. Levity is a good thing. Clever banter and quick wit is fun.
When I was in college, we’d occasionally decide we were going to drive for Pizza… and head to Naples Pizza in New Haven (sadly its now closed). One night we said we were going for pizza (that really translated into: we are going to find a party at one of the RCs). A friend down the hall said to bring her takeout… so we did… Knocked on her door with a guy we’d brought back form Yale. She was a little freaked, so he slept on the extra mattress I had in my dorm room (folded up old mattress from a sofabed that was kept under my bed. Fun times
"Can any of you who oppose renaming the hall, instead of just mocking it as ridiculous or conjuring one-liner slippery slopes, actually explain what the tangible harm the action would take? "
It takes away a chance to educate. There’s more education in “here is Calhoun. He did a lot of good for this country and this college by xxx but he also did some things that today we consider inappropriate, like yyy .” That discussion is absent if it’s now called Generic Hall and Calhoun is “erased.”
it makes students think that they’ve accomplished something when it’s really window dressing. So great, some Y students feel warmer and fuzzier. Has that tutored one more black student in New Haven, made one more black student of promise aware of Y financial aid? Has that done anything that would help the next cop not shoot the next Philando Castile at a traffic stop?
it furthers the stereotype of SJW being concerned with trivialities. Which means you can win the battle, but lose the war.
I’m an older Yalie (graduated in the 80s) so to add a little info:
First and most importantly @jym626 Naples Pizza has indeed changed name (Wall St Pizza) but I’m happy to report it is almost unchanged inside. Naples was my absolute favorite spot for late night pizza and a pitcher and long laughing talks with classmates.
And yes, Yale has graduation for the whole class on Old Campus, then everyone breaks to their own Residential College for a more intimate ceremony with their closest classmates and the Master and Dean that personally helped you along the way.
As others have posted, Yale’s Residential College system is so special and so central to the undergraduate experience that we are loathe to mess with it, perhaps even to the point of changing names. From the intramural teams, special lectures, close circle of friends, Master who took personal interest in you, bull sessions at 3am, snowball fights, printshops, theater groups, movie societies, theme parties… the Colleges really make the Yale experience extraordinary. I don’t think the system has been replicated as successfully anywhere else. And yes it is true that the first question always asked among alums is “which college?” and everyone is adament there’s was the best (of course Trumbull was actually the best. 
)
I probably speak for most Yalies in saying that renaming YALE is absurd and a non-starter. Renaming Calhoun could be considered, though there would be some backlash. Upthread I mentioned my excitement at the prospect of it being named for an exceptional classmate, though that did not come to pass.
Am not sure I am following your question in post # 399, PG, and not sure to whom it is directed, so apologies if I have this backwards. But IMO, I’d say yes- if Calhoun was the name of, say, the gym or some lab or something, likely there would be less resistance to changing it. There would likely likely be less overall significance or impact of the name change of a random building to current and past students, than of a residential college.
I agree that changing it might be whitewashing history rather than acknowledging it. But its a moot point, since Calhoun’s name is, at lease for now, in no danger of being changed.
If a majority of the stakeholders (students, alumni, etc.) think the name should be changed, by all means change the name. My concern is that if it is really only a minority of students that choose to be offended–there I go again with that term–but are simply very vocal about it, their opinion shouldn’t be given any more weight than anyone else.
The reason is that it sets a bad precedent. If we start letting people who choose to be offended dictate what others can do, where does it stop? Must whites automatically be quiet when someone tells them to “Check your privelege”? Do we cave to people who don’t like Huckleberry Finn? Do we start changing hiring practices so that it reflects the demographics of the population (down to things such as race, income, sexual orientation) rather than let talent drive the situation?
If you think that I am exaggerating, consider the complaints of Columbia student Nissy Aya. She was supposed to graduate in 2014, but may have graduated in 2016. I believe this is pretty rare to graduate this late in the Ivy League if my nephew’s experience in Yale is any indication. Why the delay? Apparently she is apparently traumatized by the Core at Columbia. She says:
Read more about Nissy Aya here:
Thank you, @pickpocket, for (a) providing such a well-written explanation of the myriad of experiences that make residential college life so unique and (b) reassuring me that Naples Pizza lives on! So, Yalies managed to adapt to the name change of Naples, but I am sure there would be greater backlash to the name change of a RC
My experiences in New Haven were a decade before you, so guess you aren’t the person we brought back from New Haven for take-out (had to put the poor guy on a bus Sunday morning to get back to New Haven!)
Jym - 399 was in response to 392. I quoted 392 at the beginning of it to show who I was responding to.
Thanks, PG. That post (392) references something I wrote, so it was unclear to me,
Your undergrad had RC’s, right PG? But there are other housing options (unlike Yale where there is only a RC system). In that circumstance, where there are RCs, residential affiliates, regular dorms, residential communities etc, is there also such a strong bond to one’s RC?
You have totally missed the point of what people are saying; they are using mockery as a tool. Basically, you have tunnel vision about Yale and Calhoun, and others are looking at a much larger picture.
Hence, to answer your question - “the tangible harm” is to society at-large by teaching people who choose to be offended that their grievances are all that are required to try and define and erase history and to assuage their dislikes.
The elephant in the room that could be unleashed is, when it comes to history, there are many things people/groups do not like and are not comfortable with. More importantly, assuaging to their demands does not change history, but it does something that is not good for society, which is to teach others that it is OK only to focus on the parts of someone’s history they do not like and that the disliked part should be governing as to how that person is viewed overall.
In this vein, I ask, should a black person now judge JFK only on the basis that he routinely used the n-word and it was natural for him to do so? Does his belief that the word was OK to use, which is 180 degrees of what is acceptable today, be the defining factor about him? I could go on and on about the many negatives of many instrumental people in history - the exact same people many understand and accept to have done many good/great things, as well.
Thus, the approach of giving in to such demands raises fundamental questions - who determines what grievances are legitimate enough and rise high enough to a level to be taken seriously? That is not a slippery slope; that this an avalanche waiting to happen because all groups of people can find something to be aggrieved about. Who is going to tell one group their grievance does not rise to a standard to allow redefining in history?
The point - while changing the name a Yale may placate some people at Yale (I doubt that anyway because some other group at Yale will find something else it wants to erase), the issue raised for society as a whole is nothing, but trouble.
In short, history cannot be determined and defined only by the negative - if using such a yardstick, then the majority of instrumental people would be erased from history.
Its possible it could “pi$$ off” many alums who currently make generous donations that may help fund scholarships for need-based students. You ok with that?
Calhoun College was founded in 1933. which was not during his lifetime.
Calhoun was not a mere slave owner, Calhoun used his considerable intellect and education to champion slavery, and that and his political theories directly contributed to the Civil War, a cataclysm that threatened the Union and killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, and did incalculable harm. The only positive thing that emerged from it was emancipation, and that of course was hugely, enormously valuable and important.
Calhoun was a tremendously influential and controversial figure in his day.
Humor alert, please skip if you aren’t interested
They could rename it Satan Hall. Might be an improvement, from the sounds of it. >:)
Another humor alert:
If he was alive when the building was named in his honor, he’d have been 151 years old. That might have been worthy of some acknowledgement.
Why don’t you start an aspiring comedians thread. Maybe in High School Life.
Commonly when a subject is sensitive and there are some opposing opinions that make one’s nose flare, humor helps to lighten things up a bit. Then there are those who seem to take themselves a bit too seriously. Maybe they need to consider loosening their belt a few notches. Seems it might be a bit uncomfortable to be wound too tightly.
Humor alert
So now we’re discriminating against comedian wanna-bes? And attempting to segregate us to one portion of the forum? Sniff, sniff, now I can never read a certain c-word again without painful memories of discrimination. [-(
I’m not getting the humor. I think this is because the posts aren’t funny.
Humor is subjective. I think it is funny. Should we detail our ethnic background to decide who has the right to claim it’s funny?