By Scott Jaschik
On many campuses, debates over race, racism and higher education — which took off in October and November — are continuing.
Among the latest developments: a plan to change the name of the football stadium at the University of Maryland at College Park, an art object at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that was originally viewed as an antiblack symbol of some kind and new demands for reform at Harvard University’s law school.
No More Byrd Stadium
For many years, black students and others have urged Maryland’s flagship campus at College Park to change the name of Byrd Stadium, which honors Harry Clifton (Curley) Byrd, who as president of the university from 1935 to 1954 oversaw a significant expansion of the campus and its programs. He was also an ardent segregationist, who opposed admitting black students and did so only under court order. He supported “separate but equal” policies to provide higher education for black students only at historically black colleges. And when there were programs available only at Maryland and not at the state’s black colleges, he favored giving black students fellowships so they would enroll elsewhere.
A background document on Byrd prepared by a university panel that studied his history also noted that, when he ran unsuccessfully for governor, he campaigned as a segregationist. And he used “states’ rights” arguments to oppose civil rights laws, arguing against federal antilynching statutes, for example, as they covered a topic he said states should decide.
In recent years, Maryland has tried to add monuments and building names to campus that highlight black history. For example, just last month, the university added a statue of Frederick Douglass (at right), but students have made clear that those additions — while welcome — did not remove their concerns about Byrd Stadium.
Wallace D. Loh, Maryland’s president, announced Monday that he would ask the system’s Board of Regents this week to authorize a new name for the stadium. Loh’s announcement noted that Byrd contributed in significant ways to the university, and stressed that recognition of those acts still deserved recognition.
The university, Loh said, would honor Byrd in a library, and would also impose a five-year moratorium on renaming buildings. Loh noted that “to many African-American alumni and students, ‘Byrd Stadium’ — the ‘front porch’ of the institution, not the most important part of the educational house, but the most visible one — conveys a racial message hidden in plain sight. The name stands as a vivid and painful reminder that a generation ago they were unwelcome on this campus.”
But Loh cautioned against judging Byrd or others by today’s standards.
Said Loh: “History is not about the past. It concerns today’s debates about the past. We must be wary of ‘presentism’ — judging historical figures based on contemporary moral standards. It is unfair to fault them for not transcending the values of their time, even when we no longer subscribe to those values.”
Sculpture Causes Alarm at Illinois
At the Illinois flagship at Urbana-Champaign, students have been debating a sculpture (at right) that appeared on a campus quad and was seen by some as a sort of pro-Klan message designed to upset black students. Many took to social media to speculate that the sheet in the object was a response to a recent Black Lives Matter rally at the same location.
It turned out that the object was a sculpture for an art class, and — according to the university — the object in question had nothing to do with race or the recent protests. (A spokesperson could not say if the sculpture was abstract or was intended to portray something.)
The university’s grounds-and-facilities workers removed the sculpture because the students didn’t have permission to leave it there. (They could have done so if they stayed, but they left.) So the removal was based on that rule, and not any judgment on the art, a spokesperson said.
While students have expressed relief, some have also said that the incident points to the need for art students and others to pay more attention to the way their actions may be perceived by minority students on campus.
when white people (“allies”) continue to do unsafe sh*t that harms the mental, physical, & spiritual wellbeing of Black folk #BlackOnCampus
— Students are w/ heR (@standingwithheR) December 5, 2015
Demands at Harvard Law
Black students at Harvard’s law school have been holding a series of meetings with administrators. One of the students’ original demands was to change the law school’s seal, which is the family crest of an a major donor with ties to the slave trade. The law school is studying that issue.
The students have now presented the law school with a more extensive list of demands, including:
The creation of “a critical race program at Harvard Law School … for students who are interested in challenging elite institutions and exploring the connections between the law and racial power.” The program should have three tenure-track faculty members by 2020, and $5 million to launch the program.
“Reform the existing mandatory legal curriculum at Harvard Law School, through meaningful student input and transparency, to ensure the integration of marginalized narratives and a serious study into the implications of racism, white supremacy and imperialism in creating and perpetuating legal analysis and thought.”
Change tuition and aid policies “to allow students to pursue a civic-minded career up front in exchange for free tuition, and to opt out and pursue a corporate-minded career in exchange for taking back their tuition debt.”
Martha Minow, dean of the law school, on Monday wrote to all students and faculty members, praising the kinds of discussions that are taking place and vowing more reflection on the issues raised by recent protests. But Minow did not endorse (or reject) any of the proposals.
“Some students and staff have presented a list of demands,” she wrote. “We are, however, a community of many voices and hopes, and we have an obligation to provide and protect the opportunity for all to participate, speak and be heard. We will work, as we always do, to seek broad input as we determine what kinds of reforms and actions will best promote our academic mission and build the community we aspire to be. Real institutional change requires the engagement of many members of our large and diverse community, and it depends on bringing about cultural change, in which we all have a stake.”
Diversity
Editorial Tags:
Race
Image Source:
Wikimedia Commons
Image Caption:
Byrd Stadium at U of Maryland
Source: Inside Higher Ed