What percentage of Calhoun students identify as black? I’d be interested to know if that information is available.
crossposted with runswimsyoga
. The letter was authored by a STEM faculty member (Maronker) but is signed largely by FAS members, and may have included about half of the A&S faculty, not all the Yale faculty. FWIW.
@DeepBlue86, did you read post 719? The numbers were changing before Yale’s president’s decision. Now, after professors comments and the Yale president backtracking, I am highly confident the numbers for changing the name will increase from the April numbers.
Do you know people at Yale who are interested in this issue and can talk about the latest events and if that has changed student views on this subject?
@jym626, ok. Marounker probably got a little excited.
I highly doubt you will find the number of black students in Calhoun published anywhere … though I did find this from the “listening sessions” where they went to ask students of Calhoun and POC students for their opinions…
http://news.yale.edu/2016/02/02/diversity-opinions-and-hopes-shared-campus-listening-sessions
“The majority of participants were in favor of renaming Calhoun College. A smaller percentage of those in favor of a new name support a hyphenated name that still allows for inclusion of the current one.”
"The first listening session was held for students in Calhoun College, and was attended by some 35 undergraduates in Rose Alumni House. Only one student who spoke at the session objected to a name change, "
“Students voiced personal anguish over the name of Calhoun College at both that session and a second one in Rose Alumni House for student members of the Afro-American Cultural Center, the Native American Cultural Center, the Asian American Cultural Center, and La Casa Cultural.”
“Said another undergraduate: “We are not thinking about renaming a class building. This is people’s home. [John] Calhoun is in every history book, but I have friends who live under his name. His name above their entryway should not being getting in the way of their lives here.” A number of freshmen from Calhoun College said that they felt the name is such an affront to African American students that they choose to spend most of their time away from their college.”
"There is no reason to go to Calhoun College right now if you are black and not a ‘Hounie.’ I have friends who won’t come to my dining hall. The name of the college brings on absolute discomfort and pain and aversion.”
"One African American student said of his college’s namesake, “This guy would have hated me. To see his name glorified — I don’t know how that’s defensible.” "
@runswimyoga’s poll is newer than the one previously cited, but it seems clear that there’s still no consensus in favor of renaming, as stated upthread. Again, I think education and informed discussion will lead the community to the right answer. This may well be some form of renaming, but I think it would be unfortunate if the opportunity were missed to educate the community and the world on the enduring effects of racism and slavery, and Yale’s influence on this, whether the college is renamed or not.
@DeepBlue86, 55 percent in a presidential election is a landslide…a crush! And the percentage is going to be higher. IF I am wrong, you call me out on that.
The community is already moving to the right answer.
Having to keep the name to educate the community and the world of the effects of slavery and racism is false. I don’t buy this argument for any price. Not even a penny.
Yale undergraduates are 11% African American. Yale strives to allot kids to Residential Colleges as proportionately as possible (not just race, but STEM v. humanities, geographic, SES, gender, etc.) So safe to assume 11% of freshman assigned to Calhoun are black.
This seems a stretch to me, though I’m not black and I could possibly be persuaded if a friend made a good case to me.
Interesting tidbit you’ll all be horrified to hear: when I was at Yale one of the dorm buildings withing Pierson Residential College was called “Slave Quarters” !!! It actually was a pretty desirable place to live. But my freshman year (1980) it was officially renamed and we were told to stop calling it that.
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/09/23/in-piersons-lower-court-a-tainted-history/
“I have been sort of imagining some of us, without a dog in this fight, were using the Calhoun naming example to consider larger societal implications of systemic institutional racism.”
And some of us, also without a dog in the fight, are trying to come to a statement of guiding principles for when the (considerable time, effort and expense of) renaming is appropriate and when it’s not. Because we like concepts 
That was a fascinating link. I particularly liked this quote, which is relevant to this discussion:
Usually, I try to read all the links…all the sources…but I am going to confess something. I don’t have a subscription to the wsj and I did not read the link from the very first post that mentioned the Yale president changed his mind.
Also, I did not see the poll that @runswimyoga posted in 719 before it was posted.
I did not know the Yale president had already backtracked. I did not see that a majority of students back in April already supported a name change. I kept reading there was minority support.
From reading the early posts in this thread…maybe the first 20 pages, I sure did not get the idea the president changed his mind. I found the story outside of this thread. If I had read the first link, I would have posted quite a bit less in this thread. I am sure a few of you would have preferred that.
So…how many of you read the first link in this thread? Looks like a very small number to me. 
I did not read the link in the first post. I didn’t see JHS’s post 29 till just a few days ago. I thought that post probably could have been the end of the thread.
However, I learned a lot of history this week of which I was unaware and now I am reconsidering Huey Long as a result, although that is really off-topic.
adding: some of my reading took me to the slave quarters stuff.
Today I toured a Civil War site that was reconstructed in the 1930s because the original house burned. And monuments were erected at the same time. In the same state are some state museums which interpret antebellum times through the eyes of the enslaved and and others which interprety through the 1930s eyes of the white population of the state. And I’m interpreting it all thinking about this thread.
I just liked JHS’s post.
I think I should get a job.
Soon we will be grandbaby sitting.
@dstark, this isn’t an election, it’s about building a consensus to make the right decision for a community. The Yale Corporation isn’t going to take a vote of students and impose the result. There are more constituencies than that, as has been pointed out, and the opinions of all are relevant. Even if polls like this one were taken into account, the one constituency that’s been polled is clearly deeply divided, and claims that a majority of another constituency favored renaming proved to be overstated.
Also, as I and others have repeated numerous times, the decision isn’t binary - for example, removing Calhoun’s name and renaming the college after Frederick Douglass, as some have suggested, is different from renaming it Calhoun-Douglass College, as others have proposed. Finally, the implications of the precedent have to be thought through. I assume that’s one of the responsibilities of the new committee.
The percentage of students favoring renaming when asked for a yes/no response may well go higher, but I don’t intend to take you up on your suggestion to call you out on it if it doesn’t, because whether you predicted it or not makes no difference to me. I’ve benefited from the perspectives of many College Confidential commenters like @jhs and others on this thread, and I comment if I think what I have to say might be helpful to a broader audience by adding facts or another perspective to the discussion, not to engage with you or anyone else in particular.
You say “having to keep the name to educate the community and the world of the effects of slavery and racism is false. I don’t buy this argument for any price. Not even a penny.” Personally, I can imagine a variety of scenarios where the community had a full and ongoing discussion about John C. Calhoun and concluded to keep the name in some form, in part to ensure that there was a continuing inquiry into race at Yale, supported by plaques, art, renaming of elements of the college, lectures, etc. You don’t have to buy it, at any price, but many in the Yale community would not agree with you that it’s false.
If Yale puts to student vote renaming Ben Franklin college, what do you think will happen?
@DeepBlue86, You are telling me, a school as esteemed as Yale, with all its brainpower, with an endowment over $20+ billion, while benefitting from hundreds of millions of tax breaks a year, can not figure away to educate and enlighten people about slavery, if the Calhoun name is removed?
That is the argument you want to make?
That is not the argument the president of yale or the professors who signed a petition are making.
I think Yale is going to change the name and figure out a way to educate. Maybe plaques, artwork, a museum, programs, etc. I think Yale will figure it out.
What is your relationship with Yale? You graduated in 1986? And? Who wants to keep the name besides people who lived at the Calhoun Residence Hall?
@DeepBlue86 , you are busted by Affiliation Police.
No one is suggesting that Yale can’t figure it out, dstark. (Eye roll)
Yale is going to go about it thoughtfully, however, and come up with guiding principles because they are going to face this and similar issues in the future, and it’s not just going to be mob-majority rule. There are lots of things to take into consideration. Visibility. Whether a place is a residence or an administrative building. Who the specific person was, why a building was named after them (money, alumni, etc.), and what other accomplishments (if any) counterbalance whatever the “bad thing” is. How much it costs to rename these buildings (you don’t just sandblast a name off a building like this). What reactions from all constituents might be. Etc. Why you think it’s knee-jerk “but they want, so therefore!” is beyond me.
@Pizzagirl, I don’t know how you get away with some of the stuff you write.
Hundreds of Yale professors want the name changed so go lecture the professors.