Older colleges were most often founded or endowed with old money. Pretty much any old money is going to come with some unsavory baggage.
I think Brown handled this issue (option #4) about as well as any school. Interesting what Georgetown is currently going through on this.
Renaming schools is stupid. Just think of how many schools old George has his name on – W&L, GWU, WUSTL, UW, Washington State, Eastern Washington, Washington College, etc. etc. etc. What a boon to the sign-making industry.
Judged by today’s standards, Abe Lincoln was a big time racist.
How many lung cancer deaths did Duke’s founder cause?
Go to college and learn to judge people in the context of their time, not ours. Hope that our descendants are merciful to us.
One can get into how the Kennedy fortune was built on bootlegging and other illegal activities using mob contacts and behavior. Let’s rename the Kennedy School of Government, since we all know that money fixed the 1960 election. LBJ’s election fixing efforts were legendary and well documented by Cato and others. Heck, one doesn’t even need historical perspective to know these things were wrong.
Getting back to the kids protesting because, well, they are kids. IMO, to elaborate on what I said earlier, it is not that people care that they protest per se. It is when their issues show a lack of education in general (especially history) and a complete disregard for the rights of others besides themselves. For the latter, the speech codes, their desire for “safe spaces”, their seemingly overly fragile psyches at any perceived offense (the standards for which are constantly changing at a pace no one can keep up with unless you have nothing else to do but be on social media)…It is when the protests are based on these kinds of factors that many of us get really annoyed and even concerned. Their take on many issues seems exceedingly uninformed and superficial. But if it has a good catch phrase, by all means let’s protest it.
It’s a movement led by a tiny minority of very vocal activists - so “vocal” that they could scream at a RC dean on campus for holding different opinions. No wonder the media was taking notes! I don’t think the “screaming girl” and the “safe space” mentality are representative. The protests however were participated by hundreds, which is a good proportion of the undergraduate student body. The administrators had to address the issue carefully. It’s uncharted water for them, and the last thing they wanted was to further irritate the irritated activists and gave the media more fuel. That’s why Salovey said, among other things, that protesters waking him up in the middle of the night and reading him a list of demands was “totally acceptable” (something to that effect). Still, it’s not that they are not trying to “help students understand that the real world is complicated and requires that one see many sides of an issue that impacts many stakeholders.” They do. The decisions they have made so far actually were more in line with that message. Of course, it’s not over yet. They are still working it out…
Yale should do to itself what the NCAA does to sports programs it sanctions - take away financial aid. Prevent themselves from offering any aid - which many of the protestors would consider ill-gotten gains anyway. Yale’s stats and prestige would tank which the protestors should agree is social justice.
Gosh, @Postmodern, I’m sorry I misinterpreted what you said here. In the context of the discussion, where people were talking about students being (in their view) over the top and foolish, and in the context of the Halloween debacle, I thought you were saying that students shouldn’t be judged harshly for actions that might seem foolish and/or obnoxious to older adults.
Erica Christakis said–to roughly paraphrase-- that testing boundaries and sometimes overstepping them is part of growing up, and she thought that students should be finding their own way whenever possible, rather than having edicts issued from officialdom circumscribing their behavior in certain. (This is not an interpretation of the Halloween costume guidelines that is agreed upon by all, but it appeared to be her view. Roughly speaking.)
I see no need to be so hostile. Why not just clarify if you feel you have been misunderstood, rather than making cryptic remarks about cursing?
Jeez.
Along that same vein, I vote we rename our nation’s capitol, one state, a half dozen universities, and redesign most of our currency.
A redesign of common US currency is being planned:
https://modernmoney.treasury.gov/
Based on the witch hunt at Seattle University’s Matteo Ricci school, it would be unwise to use the word none.
@ucbalumnus
I was thinking of the slave owners on the nickel & quarter.
I also vote that we rename the Washington Monument: OOTUS (Obelisk of the United States of America)
@PrimeMeridian - I was thinking we should call it the Powerful Home of Life and Liberty: the United States.
I went to Yale. A generation ago. It was the most invigorating, intense, glorious, life-changing years of my life.
There were protesters then, as now, that were a bit extreme and chastised for being ‘politically correct,’ But somehow that was OK and they enhanced the campus experience. All those midnight debates helped both sides learn and grow.
The Yale ‘brand’ is solid and valuable and has little to do with some 18th century East India Company trader, and much more to do with the recent acomplishments and voice of Maya Lin, President Giamatti, Prof. Scully, David McCullough, Trudeau, Woodward, Deming, Grace Hopper, Wojcicki, and 100s others.
Yale considered naming one of the new residential colleges (or renaming Calhoun) for Roosevelt (Rosie) Thompson. Rosie was a stellar student, tutor to New Haven youth, Rhodes Scholar awardee, Class President, all around honorable guy. Classmate of mine. Tragically killed by truck on NJ turnpike while returning from spring break senior year. And he was an African American, though that makes no difference. Except that he came from Little Rock High School. What a journey. Such a tragedy. He was the best of us…worthy of honor.
No need to re-name Yale. But I wish they had chosen to name more than a dining hall for Rosie Thompson.
^^ I meant Little Rock’s Central High School. Focal point for desegregation fights in the 50s.
Bam.
Great comment, @pickpocket , and thanks for introducing us to your classmate.
@Consolation , what you did was not cool, and you know it.
Let’s drop it.
Ok, maybe that’s the case… absolutes are not good in general and I should not have used one. I would just hope it is very, very few.
@fragbot I had to goggle what you mentioned. Here is an excellent response to that protest, from Dick Gregory himself: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/05/26/dick-gregory-writes-student-protesters-about-which-battles-matter-most-essay
This letter is in fact relevant to what we are discussing here. I wish students who are protesting all all sorts things would read what Gregory wrote, because he makes an important point. Don’t just jump on a cause without understanding what is behind it. This is why history is and continues to be so important (though many kids today seem to think studying history is useless.) If you don’t understand the past, it is difficult to understand the present.
The core of the issue is that many of the matters being protested are grounded in anti intellectualism. These are not protests about a particular action or inaction, designed to sway the larger community and persuade decision makers. This current waive of protests are about raw power and “this offends me, remove it”. Doesn’t matter if the offense is speech, Halloween costumes, cafeteria food, parties, books or names on buildings. This is a very different message than “hey, hey, ho, ho, LBJ has got to go”.
The attitude exhibited by the current generation of protestors is very much at odds with what people like to believe their kids are learning at university. I think this is especially true at a place like Yale, which many of us would like to think of as a bulwark of intellectualism and free debate of ideas.
I continue to hope that most colleges are places of free inquiry and discussion, but I know that many are not. As one writer put it, lots of issues have been “settled in advance” and are not up for discussion.
I’m sure some/many students on that campus are offended by and feel unsafe due to the protesters. Should the protesters be banned as well?