Can’t disagree with most of what you say, @Tperry1982 . I would just suggest that the Yale Corporation, on the one hand, may appropriately have felt gratitude and taken Charlie Johnson’s wishes seriously, but, on the other, may have felt they had to avoid explicitly giving him naming rights. Let’s say Yale had publicly stated that Charlie Johnson’s $250m had bought him the right to name one of the new colleges. If next year another large donor were to offer $250m on the condition that they could rename the college they had lived in as an undergraduate, it might be hard to say no. If I were the Corporation, I wouldn’t want to be seen to be setting a precedent.
Similarly, I would guess that the Corporation had some concern that if they agreed to rename Calhoun, the next college targeted would be Morse (whose namesake was a noted anti-Catholic bigot who thought slavery was ordained by God), then the several other colleges named after slaveholders, until the focus reached Elihu Yale himself, whose fortune was closely related to the slave trade. The potential for that kind of slippery slope, in my opinion, is why they decided to take the heat and draw a line at Calhoun.
Thank you all for your very thoughtful responses. It’s always difficult to gauge or weed out what the issues are and what is hype.
I attended UCSC so am very familiar with the notion and practice of student activism. I am encouraged that Yale provides its students the room to express their position. As @Memmsmom mentioned, Yale is filled with students who do wish to engage every aspect of their learning.
I do think it’s curious that the alum base was engaged on the matter of naming if it was already a done deal. Seems a waste of everyone’s time if it wasn’t considered.
Thanks again all for always bringing great discussions to the table!
@DeepBlue86 - I agree with you. That’s why I was less concerned about renaming Calhoun. If we went around removing names of old men who owned slaves from buildings, bridges and everything else, everything would end up being named FedEx Field, AT&T Stadium, Dorito House, etc. So, my issue is with naming it after Ben because as a Yalie I don’t want a college named after the founder of UPENN and the very thing that we said we didn’t want - another slave owner. And now that they publicly stated that the name was the wish of the donor, they have already opened up that can of worms. It will come back to bite them, I’m sure.
I think that’s right, @Tperry1982 . I wish they’d fudged things and just named it Franklin College, saying that it was commemorating both honorary degree holders, Ben and Aretha. It would have been harder for anyone to complain…but too late now…
What @Tperry1982 said (sorry, I don’t know how to embed the quote): “If the money was tied to naming rights, then the University should have been upfront about it and not gone through the motions for the last year soliciting e-mails from alumni and students about the names. They should have said that one was already set and that one was up for discussion.”
EXACTLY. This is what I thought, and what my son said as well. For what it’s worth, he and his friends are all frantically busy finishing up their senior theses and presentations. So no protesting, but lots of feelings of anger about the decisions, according to him.
I just can’t find space in my head to get worked up about the names of buildings. What was really awful about Calhoun, in my opinion, was that stained glass window. Seriously, what was in the brain of the person who thought that it was a good idea to portray Calhoun with a shackled slave kneeling before him, in a residential hall common room, even in the 1930’s? And it took until 1992 to get those panes removed?
Commissioning an alternative work of art to stand in the college seems to me to be a more fitting way to counter the bruising memory of that image and a better way to address a serious wrong than changing the name of the college. Obliterating him from memory might feel satisfying in the short run, but in the long run, I think a more effective antidote to self-complacency and moral smugness is to to be publicly reminded of one of the more shameful aspects of Yale’s past. To that end, I’m hoping some reminder of that stained glass window is contained within the work of art that is chosen.
That said, I also think that a student who would feel uncomfortable living in that particular college should be able to opt out.
I’m going to propose, for the work of art at Calhoun, a sculpture of Calhoun chained in Hell, with an angel who looks like Frederick Douglass standing over him.
I really like the way Salovey has handled a lot of issues, but I don’t think this one was handled well. First of all, they should have announced the names of the two new colleges separately from the Calhoun/master announcement. People (like me and Tperry) would still have been annoyed by the naming of a non-Yalie like Ben Franklin, but nobody would really have linked it to any kind of oppression–it would just mean that money talks. (Note: Franklin owned slaves early in his career, but later worked for abolition; I think that kind of change in view should be encouraged. That’s really different from Calhoun.)
Second, I think the decision about Calhoun was just a mistake. The reasons given for the decision are pretty lame. You have to think one of the main real reasons has to be a desire not to give in to student pressure. They should have said that it would be studied for five more years if they really wanted to keep the name and tamp down the controversy.
As for changing the name “Master” to “Head of College,” I think it’s silly. But it appears that nobody cared all that much about keeping it. I think the powers that be thought it would balance the decision to keep the name of Calhoun, but it didn’t, really.
@tonymom my dd travels Sfo to jfk. She loves both airports and prefers direct flights (I do too!) We signed up for JetBlue cc and got a large number of bonus flight points plus we get double points and other bonuses for using it. We have been very happy with JetBlue though I’m sure it’s not always the cheapest.
My daughter currently uses a school issued 13" MacBook Air, which she has to turn in soon. The MacBook Air has been great, and since she will be a humanities major I don’t think there is any need for something more powerful.
At her current school, there is a staff person who deals with any Mac issues. What do Yale students do when they have issues? Do they go to the Apple store near campus? Or is there a place at Yale? Do I need to buy some sort of plan to cover computer issues? I read that the AppleCare doesn’t cover spills, drops, etc.
For better or worse, Macs don’t often have problems, and when they do, the Apple Store is pretty lenient in their interpretation of what’s covered or not. At least, that’s my experience, ymmv. For Yale specific issues (eg, wifi, printing), there are techies on campus to deal with that.
I have a far-fetched conjecture. Is it possible that Yale is holding onto the name of Calhoun for now in hope of nailing a big donation for a name change down the road.
@tonymom - From the Bay Area, at high season/high price times flying from New Haven to SFO is easiest, and even sometimes cheaper, on United’s flight which originates at the New Haven train station (the ticket includes the Amtrak train portion) - New Haven to Newark Intl. Airport stop to SFO. (Just enter New Haven as the originating airport.) Never tried it the other direction, however. And we’ve always allowed lots of time for Amtrak to be late. There is a combination that gives three hours at JFK before departure which has always worked fine. There is also an American flight from Tweed, the New Haven airport, which flies on a small commuter plane to Philadelphia where one changes terminals, then non-stop to SFO. Just recently I saw really reasonable prices for those flights - but usually they’re higher. Bradley Airport at Hartford is more convenient than NYC, but one needs to get there, and there are no direct flights - and the prices are usually higher. But Southwest flies out of there, so two free bags… And it flies to Oakland, as well.
My son usually ended up at JFK because of the price. Delta and United have been cheaper recently than JetBlue and Virgin, unfortunately. He takes the air train, the LIRR, changes train stations via the subway, then Metro North to New Haven. Takes many hours, but is the cheapest alternative. (You can see a $ theme here!) Some folks recommend a bus from the airport to a train station - if you search through this thread - transportation options are addressed often!
If money is no object, then I’m no help - but others here know about the airport shuttles and limo services.
@tonymom I should add that dd tends to fly in and spend the day in NYC before taking the train back to New Haven.
I actually find JetBlue cheaper but I guess that depends on when you book etc. We have had a few free flights as a result of sticking with them too. She is flying back and forth to NYC several times over the summer and I will, as always, price check. I’m sure cost matters to all of us.
I did just check into the United via New Haven and didn’t get the options you mentioned @SpiritManager? Do you book via their app or ?
Felt the need to highlight that keeping the name Calhoun was a topic at Bulldog Days and continues to be discussed with the incoming class of 2020. There are many incoming freshmen very disappointed at the recent naming decisions.