John Caldwell Calhoun was a statesman and political theorist. He was also a outspoken supporter of slavery.
So the decision by the Yale University to retain a college named after its former student has sparked no small amount of controversy. The campus at New Haven, Connecticut, has seen a number of demonstrations by students who believe the university should rename Calhoun College to something more appropriate.
However, Yale President Peter Salovey announced on Wednesday that it is to retain the name of Calhoun College, one of 12 undergraduate residential colleges, to encourage the campus community to confront the history of slavery, and to teach that history and its legacy.
According to the Associated Press, he also announced that the university’s two new undergraduate residential colleges, slated to open in 2017, will be named for American leaders Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin, and that Yale will change the title of “master” to “head of college” in all of the residential colleges.
“We are a university whose motto is ‘light and truth.’ Our core mission is to educate and discover. These ideals guided our decisions. Through teaching and learning about the most troubling aspects of our past, our community will be better prepared to challenge their legacies,” Mr Salovey said.
“More than a decision about a name, we must focus on understanding the past and present, and preparing our students for the future.”
Controversy has surrounded the name of Calhoun College for decades, but it received new attention last autumn as students on campuses around the country called for universities to address the legacies of historical figures, such as Woodrow Wilson at Princeton University, in Princeton, New Jersey.
Three portraits of Calhoun, a US vice president and senator from South Carolina, were taken down from the walls of the residential college. The Yale Corporation, the university's governing body, had been gathering input from students on names it might consider for Calhoun College and the two new residential colleges.
On Wednesday night, the Black Student Alliance at Yale issued a statement calling the naming of Murray College and the abandonment of the master title “long-overdue first steps towards creating a better and more inclusive Yale.” They said that keep the name Calhoun was a regression.
“At this moment, Yale actively recommitted itself to honoring the legacy of one of America’s foremost proponents of slavery, instead of taking full advantage of the opportunity brought before them to celebrate the contributions that people of colour bring to this university,” it said.
