新浪微博
腾讯微博
微信
QQ空间
QQ好友
手机阅读分享话题

Culture News

Yale drops slavery advocate from college name

2017-02-14 10:09:57

NEW YORK, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Yale University has decided to rename one of its residential colleges, replacing the name of a slavery advocate with one of its alumnae, a distinguished computer scientist, after years of debate.

Calhoun College was given the name in the early 1930s in honor of former U.S. Vice-President John C. Calhoun, an alumnus who was a leading voice in support of U.S. slavery and white supremacy.

The university announced last weekend in a statement that it will rename the college after Grace Murray Hopper, whom the Ivy League university described as "a trailblazing computer scientist, brilliant mathematician and teacher, and dedicated public servant."

"The decision to change a college's name is not one we take lightly, but John C. Calhoun's legacy as a white supremacist and a national leader who passionately promoted slavery as a 'positive good' fundamentally conflicts with Yale's mission and values," Yale's President Peter Salovey said in the statement.

The decision was made after a meeting with the university's board of trustees, said the president.

The decision reverses one made last spring, when the university said it would keep the name Calhoun College, saying it would encourage the campus to confront the history of slavery.

However, it later appointed an advisory panel to determine whether the decision was correct.

Salovey said he was still committed to "confronting, not erasing, our history," adding that Yale will keep symbols of Calhoun elsewhere on campus in order not to erase the past from the more than 300-year-old university.

Editor:Jiang Yiwei