Dave_Berry

"The faculty of the Ivy League university voted at a meeting Tuesday to establish a new academic and administrative holiday in October called "Fall Weekend" that coincides with Columbus Day, but that doesn't bear the name of the explorer."

FOXNews.com - Brown University Kills 'Columbus Day' for 'Fall Weekend' - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

wolfmanjack

Wow, a post by Mr. CC himself.

LAndn

Congrats NAB!

MyOpinion

Personally, I think this whole thing was really stupid.

wolfmanjack

you're not the only one. my native friend (and Brown alum) thinks it's pretty silly himself. he's not a big fan of NAB but was involved until he decided their ideas seemed to be of that group of natives who liked to blame the white man for everything to this very day. i spent some time on his reservation and found that the natives I met were awesome people who didn't complain about nonsense, but that there was also a percentage who would mooch from government money, drink alcohol all the time, and complain about whitey. pretty sad but they're not all like that, obviously.

It just seems logical that Brown would admit the most active and vocal natives and thus we get this vocal minority pushing an agenda with an oh-so-wise 19 year old...(laugh here)...as the spokesperson. then they put this on the Brown poll for the BDH and get a bunch of students who are a tad liberal when it comes to white guilt and social issues and they check "change the holiday" because they feel bad for natives even though they probably don't know/have contact with/or visit any of them...in their reservations OR at Brown.

Then the University hears that a bunch of students want change. The faculty voting and are either a) a bit liberal or b) fearing backlash from students for "not being heard" (SDS anyone?). The vote passes of course.

So now we have no Columbus Day. Good job Brown.

modestmelody

Most people I know felt as followed:

Yeah, there are some pretty obvious negative effects of colonialism. I don't really think about that or care about that on Columbus Day... I'm just happy to be off on a Monday. If someone wants to call it Fall Weekend... whatever. Doesn't change jack for me.

MyOpinion

Maybe we should talk about changing the name for President's Day also. After all, we have had some very lousy Presidents. My point is that political correctness is never ending..If we are indifferent enough, someone would come one day and want to change that as well. There is always a group that will be offended by something...It is ridiculous..

The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus was an extraordinary historical event and that can not be ignored. Call it whatever you want. Fall Weekend = Columbus Day.

modestmelody

I don't think indifference toward the name of Columbus Day is a victory for PC, to be honest, if anything it's a failure. It just goes to show you that people don't put a lot of stock into these names so the PC fight is going after a red herring.

spunaugle

Hmmm.. I'm personally native. And I don't see anything wrong with either name. A name for an occasion is just a name, let people make their own meaning from it.

MyOpinion

^^ That would be nice. In a perfect, tolerant world, perhaps. However it is not that simple. The Confederate Flag comes to mind.

ilovebagels

This is why the rest of the Ivy League thinks y'all are crazy hippies

wolfmanjack

Confederate Flag - still used by racist southern a-holes and KKK members.

Columbus Day - not so much

modestmelody

Btw, you guys are all aware that many colleges and businesses do not close on Columbus Day.

In fact, more importantly, I think the university remaining open on Veteran's Day but closing on Columbus Day is what made me think twice about the whole thing.

Truthfully, the reason we're off is it conveniently fits a long weekend into our calendar in a month without another excuse to get off from classes. While other universities still call it Columbus day, they also hold classes. If our motivation for being off from classes lies somewhere other than honoring Columbus, then calling that "Fall Weekend" is really just calling the kettle black. I'm not sure the wording of the resolution passed by the FEC, but I can just about guarantee it simply changed the name on the university calendar, not condemned the existence of Columbus day in general.

bulletandpima

What I find interesting is that Brown only has 1 day off that is named for a person (MLK). Presidents Day is now a winter weekend with no name associated to it!

modestmelody

That's been called the "Long Weekend" for a while. I think that's because when the calendar was set we still celebrated Washington and Lincoln's birthdays separately and no one ever felt the need to change it to "President's Day Weekend", especially since we get off Monday as well as Tuesday.