Yale University will announce in February whether or not it will change the name of Calhoun College, something students and community activists have called for because the man the building is named after was a supporter of slavery.
“I expect to receive the advisors’ recommendation soon and will then bring it to Yale’s board of trustees (formally called the Yale Corporation). The trustees and I will make a final decision, both on the question of whether to remove John C. Calhoun’s name from the residential college that bears it, and—if that question is answered in the affirmative—on the name that would replace Calhoun’s. I expect these matters to be discussed and decided upon in February,” Yale President Peter Salovey said in the statement.
Students who oppose keeping the name of the school have launched protests and a university employee in 2016 smashed a stained glass window in the Calhoun College dining hall that depicted slaves. He was charged, but those charges were later dropped and Yale rehired the employee in a new role.
In September, Yale created a committee of faculty, alumni and students to come up with principles to guide the university on renaming campus buildings.
In a letter to the Yale community on Monday, Salovey wrote that a report from the Committee to Establish Principals on Renaming “establishes a strong presumption against changing building names and articulates a set of principles to apply when a renaming is considered.”
