“One made an interesting point that would the students who are uncomfortable living in Calhoun equally uncomfortable working for investment houses or big law firms or companies that were founded by people who may have been involved in the slave trade it in some capacity, or were racist or bigoted in some other way in their history?”
I have no data to support or refute this, but I would suspect that the group of Yale students vitally concerned with protesting Calhoun and similar social justice issues does not intersect all that greatly with the group of Yale students working hard to angle for the upcoming on-campus Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley interviews.
The point was, I believe, that it may be seen as hypocritical if someone, regardless of their race, is insistent that the building be renamed but is on the other hand very comfortable earning their income, finding their corporate home with an employer who may have a similar history.
Moderator’s note: It is customary to back up statements with some form of references as opposed to calling each other wrong in a very impolite way. Otherwise, it is just an opinion and one person’s opinion is as right as another person’s opinion.
I am saying that things do not happen in a vaccuum, and that the professors, students and non academic protestors concerned with such issues watch what happens at colleges around the country, and use those experiences to shape their demands and tactics in a particular setting. Again, I can’t believe that any of you who are serious people would be surprised by this.
I don’t know about the no hoopla part. The protests last fall were in the WSJ and the Post at least. As to how they handled it, to quote my favorite Princeton song, they decided to “throw money at it til it disappears”. A committee was formed to discuss the possibility of at some point maybe having a committee look into whether they should rename some of the buildings. That committee met for a couple months and then after the hoopla died down decided to retain the name of both the Wislon school and Wilson college. Princeton did decide to put some more money into diversity centers, agreed not to punish the protestors who occupied the President’s office, changed the motto from “In the nation’s service and the service of all nations” to “In the nation’s service and the service of humanity”, buy some diversifying art for the campus and to remove a huge mural of Wilson from one of the cafeterias. In all fairness, Eisegruber (the President) released what I thought was a pretty good statement to the effect that you can not cherry pick history, and that people should learn to accept and judge individuals on the totality of their contributions to the University and the wider world.
By the way, to the point above, college administrators look at hopw other schools handled protests, and I would be willing to bet that part of Yale’s response here was informed by what Eisgruber did last year.
“I believe, that it may be seen as hypocritical if someone, regardless of their race, is insistent that the building be renamed but is on the other hand very comfortable earning their income, finding their corporate home with an employer who may have a similar history.”
Yes, and my conjecture is that these aren’t the same kids. So there’s no hypocrisy if that’s the case.
When I was in college, people protested the Vietnam war as a political issue, and most had no connection with the military. More recently people protested bottled water, canned soda, etc, but it’s possible that some of these students went to work for companies that were in the industry, or related ones.
I think this is 100% correct as well. The “slippery slope” isn’t particularly slippery when judgement calls are being made, which is as it should be. Some raise the issue, it is discussed, compromise is reached and life goes on. This is exactly what happened at Amherst with the school/town name and mascot.
“One made an interesting point that would the students who are uncomfortable living in Calhoun equally uncomfortable working for investment houses or big law firms or companies that were founded by people who may have been involved in the slave trade it in some capacity, or were racist or bigoted in some other way in their history?”
We all live in the United States of America, so the only choices here are denying our history and living with our history. But to me, there’s a difference between my college and my workplace. College is part of your identity. I don’t wear the sweatshirt of former workplaces where I worked for four years. I don’t help former employers recruit staff. I can do business with people I disagree with. It was a business transaction, and now it’s over. But no school and no student wants that sort of relationship.
I would think one of the main reasons is the name was kept was Wilson was an actual President of the US, even if he instituted some racist, regressive policies.
Not sure people want to start going down the path of wiping out names of US presidents and writers of the Constitution they do not like because of actions against blacks or any other proclaimed marginalized group. Some 80%+ of US presidents and top instrumental people who formed this nation would not survive such test.
“When I was in college, people protested the Vietnam war as a political issue, and most had no connection with the military. More recently people protested bottled water, canned soda, etc, but it’s possible that some of these students went to work for companies that were in the industry, or related ones.”
I knew lots of guys back then who were opposed to the war in Vietnam but then went to work for the military a short time later. They were drafted.
Yup- I remember the draft #s well. IIRC, lots of men became teachers back then to defer the draft. One was the brother af a classmate. He wasn’t into teaching math, though thats what he did, but he was the head of the Jazz club and it was a great club!! But I digress…
Actually, there are lots of circumstances where one’s employer is as much a surrogate family as the residential college. Young attorneys spend hours and hours at their office, and their colleagues, associates, the partners and staff are like family. My DH worked for a well known company for years. The brand is known. We still wear brand/logo shirts and hats, have brand/logo coolers, and there was a brand/logo front license plate on DS#2s car for years (after the car got passed down to him). DH retired from that company several years ago, but maintains a close relationship with former coworkers, does in fact recommend/refer potential contractors or fulltime hires to them, and attends the “old farts” group of former employees that still get together. It was for sure a family like environment.
This summer I was at a party with two young women, one a recent graduate of Harvard, the other a current senior at Yale. Interestingly, both of them lived in the houses at their respective schools where the Christakises are or had been masters.
The Harvard student told a story of Erica C sending an email out to the students at the Harvard Houses one very snowy winter saying that rather than sitting around complaining they should get out there and dig out some elderly Cambridge residents. This student and friends decided to give it a try, so they went to Erica C’s quarters to borrow a snow shovel. She didn’t have one. Oh.
I agree that the names should stay even though some of them were designated well after the end of slavery. But I do applaud Yale students to require that the names be viewed now in their historical context. That is what was done when Calhoun was names in the 1930’s. At that time they judged him well. Yale students are saying that today we don’t judge him well and in doing so they are no different than their predecessors. Instead of poking fun at them i encourage you to look at the plaques posted in certain places like Ezra Stiles to see what has helped calm the waters without destroying Yale.
Oh.