World-renowned Yale University has been under fire for the past few decades for naming a residential dormitory after politician and white supremacist, John Calhoun. When student protests erupted during the fall, calls to rename the college took over the mainstream media. But on Wednesday, Yale president Peter Salovey announced that the name was here to stay, The New York Times reports.
Salovey said that renaming the college would be “hiding our past,” and that the name should spark tough conversations at Yale, according to the Times.
Student activists were not happy with the decision, though some of the demands they’ve asked of the administration have been met. Yale has agreed to invest over $50 million into efforts to diversify the faculty of the university. One new dorm will be named after Anna Pauline Murray, a black female legal scholar and civil rights activist. The other new dorm will be named after Benjamin Franklin.
While students and faculty were excited about the selection of Murray, Franklin, who owned slaves at one point, was a questionable selection.
While the choice to keep the dormitory named after Calhoun may seem like a step back for the progress of Yale, Salovey seems convinced that they are moving in the right direction.