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Late to the party, but here are some thoughts:
John C. Calhoun was Secretary of State, Secretary of War, Vice President (the first Yalie elected to the office) and the last of only two individuals to serve as Vice President under two Presidents. As noted upthread, in the 1930s, when Yale was naming most of the residential colleges, North-South reconciliation was being emphasized and open racism was much more socially acceptable. At that time, JCC clearly looked like a very distinguished alumnus to the Yale Corporation, well worthy of naming an RC after (by the way, there’s also a statue of him on Harkness Tower, the iconic Yale landmark).
There isn’t much surviving information about the Corporation’s thought process at the time, but it sounds like they were specifically looking to honor someone who was distinguished in government/politics. They apparently considered William Howard Taft, a Yale alum who served at different times as President and Chief Justice (the only person to have held both offices), but decided against him in part because he had only recently died and they were unsure about his place in history.
The RCs are generally named after people important in the history of Yale and New Haven (including distinguished alumni), and never after living people. A side note: one person very important to the history of the university, who successfully solicited the original donation from Elihu Yale, doesn’t have an RC named after him - perhaps because his name was Jeremiah Dummer and “Dummer College” didn’t sound ideal.
As noted upthread, most of the RCs are named after slaveholders (including the new Benjamin Franklin College - although Franklin eventually freed his slaves and became an abolitionist), and Elihu Yale made his fortune in the slave trade. While JCC’s position in history was defined by his pro-slavery beliefs, some of the others who have RCs named after them - particularly Samuel Morse - also expressed views on African-Americans that are far beyond the pale today (this didn’t stop Yale from establishing Morse College in 1961, though). One can imagine that the Yale Corporation could be worried that if they start renaming things now, it may not be easy to stop.
That said, the decision by the Corporation to retain the Calhoun name clearly left a lot of people unhappy. The new Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming seems to move the responsibility for future decisions from the Corporation to this new body. I would guess eventually it will decide to rename Calhoun - I’m highly confident it won’t attempt to rename Yale.
"and controversial IMO is that Yale is now forcing silence on the black cafeteria worker:
“Yale Gags Rehired Cafeteria Worker”"
It would not at all be unusual for someone to make a deal to drop criminal charges in exchange for not speaking publicly. This is not nefarious. It’s done routinely in the big grown-up world. The claim that they are “forcing silence” or “gagging” implies that they forced him to do something when in fact that was an offer he accepted (probably wisely).
The terms forcing and gagging are being used to rile up the uneducated and unsophisticated. It’s the equivalent of when some headline claims that a doctor used a drug off-label to treat a condition, intending for unsophisticated people to hear that and exclaim how terrible and nefarious it is when in fact doctors use drugs off-label all the libeling day.
We are not an unsophisticated group here so that won’t fly with us. A simple statement of fact - Y agreed to drop charges if the man agreed not to speak publicly - will do just fine.
Oh, Jeremiah Dummer College would be priceless!
And Yale, with students about to return to campus, seems to be in damage control. Is this a token gesture?
The plaque went up outside the dining hall Wednesday evening. Read the full article linked below:
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/08/18/plaque-honors-three-men-controlled-by-ezra-stiles/
@Pizzagirl Yes. I agree to that, BUT if you read the article this silencing has created controversy…
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/menafee/
From that article:
“The provision sparked outrage from demonstrators who stood in support of Menafee over the past two weeks.”
“It goes against the First Amendment,” Kica Matos of the Center for Community Change said. “Yale needs to understand they might have imposed restrictions on Menafee, but they cannot shut the community down.”
“If they thought shutting him down was going to have an impact on our broader advocacy,” she added, “they are sadly mistaken.”
“I think that the University’s attempt to silence its employee is wrong,” argued Yale Law grad Katherine Demby. “And I think it shows that Yale’s actions did not come from a genuine wish to reconcile with Mr. Menafee and make amends for the racist artifacts in Calhoun but from a desire to keep this issue as quiet as possible. It’s shameful."
The article goes on and on in that vein which is showing the students and community clearly think more is involved… than sophistication or a standard gag clause. Gagging is in the title of the article …
Well, as recently as a month ago (perhaps before the settlement was reached?) he wasn’t gagged http://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/15/exclusive_meet_yale_dishwasher_corey_menafee
@jym626 Yes the article http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/menafee/ states that
“Since his June 13 arrest, until signing the gag provision, Menafee has spoken widely about the incident,”
Well, he indicates he has a degree in mass communications from Virginia Union University (a HBCU). Guess he finally had a chance to put his degree to work. Perhaps when Yale reassigns him to another duty on campus, he might be able to use his education.
Greenwitch: My thoughts and speculations have pretty much been the same as yours.
From a brown bag lecture in 2005 at Yale:
It’s really worth reading. Someone criticizes the naming when it happens. A student agitates to get a window removed in the 1980s. It’s been an on-going controversy, at least among some, as far as I can tell. Today’s Social Justice Warriors aren’t the first to object to this. They can be seen as part of a tradition. imho.
Guilty as charged, but there is a method to my madness.
Bear with me for a moment, because I have to go back and address some of the other issues that people have brought up. Otherwise, my thought process will have little chance of making sense…
Sorry for the delay, but there is only so much time I can put into this…
From President Salovey:
Lots more interesting info in the article:
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/08/01/with-new-committee-any-outcome-possible-for-calhoun-salovey-says/
@alh wrote:
If you’re going to reference an article, don’t mischaracterize the article itself - that’s pretty disingenuous, don’t you think?
From the article:
@DoyleB - the weird thing is that they chose Calhoun over Taft, who had been POTUS and on the SCOTUS. How does Calhoun add up as the most eminent civil graduate then?
@greenwitch The explanation is that Taft had died too recently and had not yet been judged by history
…which makes choosing a vocal advocate for slavery seem even more shortsighted.
DoyleB: you are correct; I picked out a few facts and wrote my own narrative.
I appreciate all of you actually reading one of my links. Really. I thought the one yesterday on eugenics was pretty interesting as well.
Thinking about New Orleans (my favorite city) and Yale and monuments: We can love a place and still see the flaws.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
One should correctly assume that if I went on a delete-a-thon yesterday on Gone With The Wind that an off-topic discussion about “What is Jazz” would meet a similar fate. It did. 16 posts deleted. Let’s stick to topic, although for the life of me, I can’t imagine what’s left to say after 49 pages. 
I know I seem like I’m standing up for Calhoun - honestly, I’m not. I am not a southerner; I was born and raised in New Mexico. I might have learned about Calhoun in history class, but as far as I know the first I heard of him was this summer. I attended a wedding in July. I stayed at the Francis Marion hotel, which is at the corner of King and Calhoun streets in Charleston, SC. Across the street is Marion Square, and in the square there’s a statue of John C. Calhoun. Now I’m sure there are folks in Charleston who care specifically about the naming controversy, but I’m not one of them.
What I’ve learned from this thread is that Yale has sort of a sordid, sleazy history involving slave trading, white supremacy, and eugenics (not to mention a role in some sort of weird physiological study of naked freshman ) John C. Calhoun seems like a convenient scapegoat. It is pretty clear that nobody at Yale had an issue with him and his views in the early 1930s. How come? Nobody there had a problem with Samuel Morse and his vile writings when they named a college for him in 1962. How come? Nobody seems to care that Yale himself was a slave trader. Nobody seems to care about all the other slave owners with colleges named after them. They just want to discuss Calhoun, and his views, in the present day.
It seems to me that Yale, and their students, need to own their history. Allowing them to direct the vast majority of the outrage at the “nasty, racist, secessionist confederate”, while skipping the rest of the story, seems pretty unfair, and awfully convenient. That’s the point I’m trying to make.
Those who want the name changed from Calhoun are not skipping the rest of the story.
@DoyleB, did you read what hundreds of professors at Yale said? I think there are at least 400 Yale professors who want the name changed. Somebody can check that.
You have an oppressed group. An oppressed group is controlled. Blacks were controlled. Now… 150 years after slavery, blacks want a name changed. The name is of a guy who was one of the leading proponents of slavery in US History. He is not just a slave trader…
So blacks want the name changed and people who don’t have a dog in this fight are saying no, or why aren’t you asking for all the names removed, or why aren’t you doing xyz?
And my answer to these questions to those who are asking is…
Why are you still trying to control other people? In this case, why are you trying to control black people or their supporters?
If it doesn’t affect you, why do you want to try and control others so much? That’s what you are doing.
If black people and others want the name changed, change the name. The name is going to be changed.
Hasn’t this country done enough crap already to black people? Changing a name is such an easy, positive gesture to make and people put up roadblocks…
That’s a good point, in my opinion. But it may be difficult for us to know what is going on at Yale, when the media gives us a few facts and a narrative to explain them. I have been trying to find and read Yale sources as a first step to understanding what is happening at Yale. I’ve been reading a whole lot of comments on other sites by folks who claim to be Yalies.
post #678 is a response to #676. “That’s the point I’m trying to make”
One thing that mystifies me is why some middle aged and old people are so outraged by young people advocating for social change.
It’s the world they are going to be living in. We kind of already had our chance. imho.