When it comes to addressing institutional buildings, statues and policies that can be perceived as reinforcing problematic ideas, it’s important to remember that not all history should be set in stone.

Members of the Yale community, including students, faculty and alumni, recently sent President Peter Salovey a letter calling for a name change of the university’s Calhoun College. The concern is that the building’s namesake, Vice President John C. Calhoun, was a known defender of slavery.

While it is important to remember the past and contextualize it, universities should not sacrifice the comfort level of students just to literally put that history on a pedestal. Yale chose to keep Calhoun College’s name last semester, but has since established a Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming. Given the sheer amount of signatures on that letter, there is real concern in Yale’s community about this issue and it’s commendable that Yale is taking steps to consider a change.

Colleges must take a second look at how historical aspects of their campus fit into the modern-day setting considering key part of “institutional racism” is the institution. Because regulatory bodies can be such influential vessels of racism, institutions should welcome any way to decolonize itself and its culture. Refusing to glorify the problematic ideologies of public figures, current and past, is not mutually exclusive with acknowledging history.

Syracuse University has also grappled with the implications of how it historically represents marginalized communities. For example, Oct. 10 marked the first time SU celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day after years of protest, but one of the mascots before Otto was a Native American man, the Saltine Warrior. Though Syracuse University tends to be on the progressive side of issues of diversity, there is always work to be done and history to unpack.

Apart from mulling over decisions and finally making them, institutions can go a step further by fostering public conversations about the road to progress. Earlier this year, the National Cathedral replaced its stained glass windows containing Confederate flags.

Not only did the cathedral decide to act against a racist history; it also used the choice as a starting point for sparking conversations around race in the community. Along with addressing oppression, dialogue sessions would turn contentious issues into means of better analyzing history and educating university members about the often-lost implications behind it today.

Let Yale’s situation illustrate the balance that universities should strike. It’s not about erasing history, but about holding history makers, as noteworthy as they may be, accountable for their problematic legacies. Instead of stifling history, it should be presented in an honest and critical way, acknowledging the oppressions that have been left standing for too long.

Published on October 16, 2016 at 11:15 pm

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