Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Monday 13 February 2017

Yale drops slavery proponent Calhoun from college name

have been concerned all removal of a stained glass
along and remain con- window depicting a black
cerned that we don’t do man in shackles kneeling
things that erase history. So before Calhoun.
renamings are going to be “I’m underwhelmed,”
exceptional.” said Rabb, an educator
The board of trustees made and state representative
its decision to rename the in Pennsylvania who co-
college Friday. Salovey, founded an alumni net-
who sits on the board, said work for black Yale gradu-
the case was exceptional ates. “This choice makes
because Calhoun’s princi- no corrective move toward
pal legacy is at odds with reconciliation in light of not
the university’s values and just the legacy of John C.
mission, and his views were Calhoun, but Yale Univer-
contested in his own time. sity’s ties to slavery and sys-
Calhoun, a member of the temic racism.”
Yale class of 1804, was a The residential college was
senator from South Caro- named for Calhoun when
lina and a leading voice it was established in the
for those opposed to abol- early 1930s. The name re-
ishing slavery. He served as ceived new attention as
vice president from 1825 to protesters on campuses
1832. around the country called
“John C. Calhoun. White for universities to address
supremacist. Ardent de- the legacies of historical
John Lugo, center, of Unidad Latina en Accion of New Haven, is arrested during a demonstration
after some protesters blocked the intersection of Elm and College Streets in New Haven, Conn., fender of slavery as a posi- figures, such as Woodrow
Friday, Feb. 10, 2017, and refused to move. After years of debate, Yale University announced tive good,” Salovey noted. Wilson at Princeton Univer-
Saturday it will change the name of a residential college that honors a 19th century alumnus and “Someone whose views sity in New Jersey. In an on-
former U.S. vice president who was an ardent supporter of slavery. hardened over the course line essay Saturday in The
(Peter Hvizdak/New Haven Register via AP) of his life, died essentially New York Times, Yale senior
criticizing the Declaration Tobias Holden, a black Cal-
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) per, a mathematician who recent as Friday after they
— After years of debate, earned Yale degrees in the blocked street traffic. of Independence and its houn descendant, said it’s
emphasis on all men being wrong to treat Calhoun as
Yale University announced 1930s, invented a pioneer- The university’s president,
Saturday it will change the ing computer program- Peter Salovey, announced created equal.” a benign symbol of history.
Chris Rabb, a 1992 Yale “Get my racist ancestor’s
name of a residential col- ming language and be- in April that the school
lege that honors a 19th came a Navy rear admiral. would keep Calhoun’s graduate, said in a tele- name off of Yale’s cam-
phone interview Saturday pus” was the essay’s title.
century alumnus and for- Yale said it was the final name. But, in August, he
mer U.S. vice president who decision in a controversy appointed an advisory that just changing the A flare-up of the contro-
name from a “bad person versy last summer followed
was an ardent supporter of over former Vice President panel to consider wheth-
slavery. John C. Calhoun’s lega- er the name should be to a good person” is not the arrest of a black din-
enough.
ing services worker, Co-
Yale trustees said the Ivy cy that had simmered for changed after all.
League university is renam- years and boiled over with “We have a strong pre- Rabb has spoken out rey Menafee, who used
against the name since a broomstick to smash a
ing Calhoun College after campus protests in 2015. sumption against renaming
trailblazing computer sci- Four people were arrested buildings on this campus,” his own days living at Cal- stained-glass window at
houn College when he the college that depicted
entist Grace Murray Hop- in a peaceful protest as Salovey said Saturday. “I
successfully lobbied for the slaves.q