[Music]
if the battle over monuments has been
raging in towns across the country the
early skirmishes started at Ivy League
universities like Yale
Calvin College was named in 1933 after
Yale alumnus John C Calhoun a senator
from South Carolina who later served as
vice president to John Quincy Adams and
Andrew Jackson but that’s not all in the
first half of the 19th century he was
the most strident articulator to use his
words of slavery as a positive good and
he rooted that view that slavery was a
positive both for slaveholders and
slaves and I give it that I think is
deeply disturbing to us today he rooted
that belief in core beliefs about white
supremacy senior Dasia Moore said
Calhoun’s name and the images from his
time made her uncomfortable especially
in the dining hall right across from me
I can see the stained glass window that
depicts two slaves picking something
it’s a symbol that declares you do not
belong here or you were imagined in this
space to fulfill a certain really
limited role the already simmering
debate became more heated after yale
dining hall worker corey menifee smashed
one of the windows although university
worker for eight years Menifee says he
had been working in the dining hall at
Calhoun college for just six months
while mopping the floors the 38 year old
took a mop handle to the subject of his
disgust
what was going through your head for him
I was just sick of looking at that
wonderful there we are in the 21st
century and I don’t think those type of
images should be blatantly displayed and
faces like dinosaurs it’s culturally
insensitive it’s no secret that the
majority of the employees who work in
the Dynamo are of african-american
descent it was a literal and figurative
breaking point young president Peter
salivate was initially opposed to
changing the name our campus both in the
classroom but also outside of the
classroom it is a living history lesson
and I wanted to make sure that that
conversation about the county was one
that we could always have between
students who thought his decision was
wrong headed and older alumni who felt
he should stand on the side of tradition
so salivate appointed a committee to
come up with a blueprint for who stays
and who goes after all nine other
buildings on campus are named for men
associated with slavery including Elihu
Yale himself John Witt was head of the
committee we named they ought to be a
layer thing on a research university
campus like ours but sometimes renaming
might be appropriate we were supposed to
think more abstractly about principle
legacies thinking about whether the idea
is contested at the time of the namesake
think about what the motive of the
university was and putting the name on
the building and then last how does the
building work in helping to build
community
the committee came up with four
principles and discovered Calhoun’s name
was controversial even back in 1933
there were statements written at the
time saying really
John C Calhoun so at a ceremony this
fall
Calhoun College was officially renamed
after the late Navy admiral computer
pioneer and Yale alumna Grace Hopper
bless those that belong to this College
now grace Murray hopper is your home I
was really excited about it because I’ve
always looked up to Grace Hopper ever
since I learned about her in high school
so now when people ask you what college
you’re in I’m really excited to tell a
momen hopper changing the people that we
honor and helps a wider range of
students be able to envision themselves
as someone who can make a difference who
will be remembered as part of a
conscious effort to not sanitize or
erase the past
Calhoun’s name and image will remain on
the edifice it’s no longer the name by
which this college is known but the
history and what we need to learn from
and about John C Calhoun is not wiped
away we
forget that Yale was a university that
once did have a college a very important
part of the campus dedicated to John
want more exclusive content from America
inside app we’ll just click one of these videos floating next to me
if the battle over monuments has been
raging in towns across the country the
early skirmishes started at Ivy League
universities like Yale
Calvin College was named in 1933 after
Yale alumnus John C Calhoun a senator
from South Carolina who later served as
vice president to John Quincy Adams and
Andrew Jackson but that’s not all in the
first half of the 19th century he was
the most strident articulator to use his
words of slavery as a positive good and
he rooted that view that slavery was a
positive both for slaveholders and
slaves and I give it that I think is
deeply disturbing to us today he rooted
that belief in core beliefs about white
supremacy senior Dasia Moore said
Calhoun’s name and the images from his
time made her uncomfortable especially
in the dining hall right across from me
I can see the stained glass window that
depicts two slaves picking something
it’s a symbol that declares you do not
belong here or you were imagined in this
space to fulfill a certain really
limited role the already simmering
debate became more heated after yale
dining hall worker corey menifee smashed
one of the windows although university
worker for eight years Menifee says he
had been working in the dining hall at
Calhoun college for just six months
while mopping the floors the 38 year old
took a mop handle to the subject of his
disgust
what was going through your head for him
I was just sick of looking at that
wonderful there we are in the 21st
century and I don’t think those type of
images should be blatantly displayed and
faces like dinosaurs it’s culturally
insensitive it’s no secret that the
majority of the employees who work in
the Dynamo are of african-american
descent it was a literal and figurative
breaking point young president Peter
salivate was initially opposed to
changing the name our campus both in the
classroom but also outside of the
classroom it is a living history lesson
and I wanted to make sure that that
conversation about the county was one
that we could always have between
students who thought his decision was
wrong headed and older alumni who felt
he should stand on the side of tradition
so salivate appointed a committee to
come up with a blueprint for who stays
and who goes after all nine other
buildings on campus are named for men
associated with slavery including Elihu
Yale himself John Witt was head of the
committee we named they ought to be a
layer thing on a research university
campus like ours but sometimes renaming
might be appropriate we were supposed to
think more abstractly about principle
legacies thinking about whether the idea
is contested at the time of the namesake
think about what the motive of the
university was and putting the name on
the building and then last how does the
building work in helping to build
community
the committee came up with four
principles and discovered Calhoun’s name
was controversial even back in 1933
there were statements written at the
time saying really
John C Calhoun so at a ceremony this
fall
Calhoun College was officially renamed
after the late Navy admiral computer
pioneer and Yale alumna Grace Hopper
bless those that belong to this College
now grace Murray hopper is your home I
was really excited about it because I’ve
always looked up to Grace Hopper ever
since I learned about her in high school
so now when people ask you what college
you’re in I’m really excited to tell a
momen hopper changing the people that we
honor and helps a wider range of
students be able to envision themselves
as someone who can make a difference who
will be remembered as part of a
conscious effort to not sanitize or
erase the past
Calhoun’s name and image will remain on
the edifice it’s no longer the name by
which this college is known but the
history and what we need to learn from
and about John C Calhoun is not wiped
away we
forget that Yale was a university that
once did have a college a very important
part of the campus dedicated to John
want more exclusive content from America
inside app we’ll just click one of these videos floating next to me
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