Duke BOT votes to rename Aycock Dormitory

[Kimist]

In case you missed this news:

http://www.wncn.com/story/25796833/d...st-nc-governor

The replacement name will be "East Residence Hall."

k

[brevity]

Excerpt:

The Duke University Board of Trustees has voted to rename Aycock, a freshman dormitory named for Gov. Charles B. Aycock, according to The Duke Chronicle, pointing to Aycock’s racist views as a reason for the change.

The dorm will be named East Residence Hall, which was its original name.

It's an interesting subject, but I don't see how to have a discussion that doesn't go into public policy territory. Even if we tried to restrict it to the modern movement of changing names to address prejudicial moments in history, someone is going to bring up Dan Snyder and the NFL franchise in Washington. Then it becomes a conflict, not among posters, but a conflict between the discussion we're allowed to have and the discussion we want to have.

[Tom B.]

It's an interesting subject, but I don't see how to have a discussion that doesn't go into public policy territory. Even if we tried to restrict it to the modern movement of changing names to address prejudicial moments in history, someone is going to bring up Dan Snyder and the NFL franchise in Washington. Then it becomes a conflict, not among posters, but a conflict between the discussion we're allowed to have and the discussion we want to have.

Excellent timing.

US Patent and Trademark Office cancels Redskins trademark registration.

[Bluedog]

Aycock also had no connection to Duke whatsoever. He wasn't a student, teacher, or staff member at Duke and never donated any money, so there wasn't necessarily a strong rationale in the first place. The new "East Residence Hall" is a pretty confusing name. "Where do you live?" "Oh, I live on East Campus in East Residence Hall next to the East Duke Building, duh!" The "Is It In You?" Gatorade-style bench for Aycock when I was at Duke was pretty sweet, though...

[OldPhiKap]

Aycock also had no connection to Duke whatsoever. He wasn't a student, teacher, or staff member at Duke and never donated any money, so there wasn't necessarily a strong rationale in the first place. The new "East Residence Hall" is a pretty confusing name. "Where do you live?" "Oh, I live on East Campus in East Residence Hall next to the East Duke Building, duh!" The "Is It In You?" Gatorade-style bench for Aycock when I was at Duke was pretty sweet, though...

Name it for Cutcliffe. Problem solved.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Wasn't the new name selected because it was the original name for that dormitory?

Somehow trying to correct or change today what happened yesterday isn't satisfying.

[johnb]

My over-and-under is 11 months before they announce a new name for the dorm.

They may have already identified the donor, and it makes sense to have a boring buffer name for a year. I wonder what the going price is for this sort of naming opportunity?

I can also imagine the University is now combing its records for evidence of malfeasance in hopes of generating more such opportunities...

[davekay1971]

I'm not a huge fan of removing honors because the honored person held views that, while normal and acceptable at the time, are repugnant today. Taking that sort of activity to it's logical conclusion, we'll need to rename Washington, DC (for both the Washington part and the Columbia part), and, if we get into Amerigo Vespucci's head deep enough, probably North and South America as well, along with a fair number of towns, cities, and states in The United States of The Continent Sandwiched Between The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (The USCSBAPO) as well.

Slavery is morally repugnant, a true crime against humanity, sadly still all-too existent in our world today, and one of the great and persistent evils of human history. Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Monroe, Adams...all these men who risked their lives to build our nation had views on slavery ranging from "I'm good with it" to "I don't much like it but it's not worth destroying the country over". Neither view is remotely acceptable to the modern views of our society. Not sure how Amerigo Vespucci felt about people of African descent, but I'm willing to bet he didn't share Martin Luther King's dream that one day people would be judged on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.

Racism, in fact, as bad and destructive as it is, was a relatively mainstream and acceptable way of thinking until very modern times. That's not excusing it...instead it's realistically admitting that many of the great men and women who accomplished great things that deserve honoring held views that most people would now find appalling.

Taking away the honors of accomplished men and women who came before us, eliminating their names from monuments and buildings, based on the fact that their views and values are discordant with our own is neither fair to their accomplishments nor is it the means to right the wrongs their views caused or allowed to happen.

I don't know much about Aycock, whether he was a good or bad man, what he accomplished in his life or not. So my argument above isn't specifically about Aycock, but rather it's about us, as a society, determining how far we are going to go with symbolic gestures to address real wrongs in our past. Because our nation's past is chock full of great people who did great things to build our nation, and who's names are all over our cities, states, streets, parks, and buildings, but who would probably offend the hell out of you if you got to talking with them about racial equality, gender equality, gay marriage, religious differences, etc...

[Duvall]

My over-and-under is 11 months before they announce a new name for the dorm.

They may have already identified the donor, and it makes sense to have a boring buffer name for a year. I wonder what the going price is for this sort of naming opportunity?

I can also imagine the University is now combing its records for evidence of malfeasance in hopes of generating more such opportunities...

Yeah, I suspect the actual interim name of the dorm is "This Space For Rent."

[Duvall]

I don't know much about Aycock, whether he was a good or bad man, what he accomplished in his life or not.

Bad.

[davekay1971]

Bad.

Yes, yes indeed. Plus he's a Carolina grad. Thanks for the article link.

[Reilly]

Name it for Cutcliffe. Problem solved.

As I understand it, the plan is to remove the Robert E. Lee statue that's by the Chapel doors and replace it with one of CDC. Lot of debate whether it will include the headset.

[OldPhiKap]

NM -- voluntarily removed

[johnb]

...

I don't know much about Aycock, whether he was a good or bad man, what he accomplished in his life or not. So my argument above isn't specifically about Aycock, but rather it's about us, as a society, determining how far we are going to go with symbolic gestures to address real wrongs in our past. Because our nation's past is chock full of great people who did great things to build our nation, and who's names are all over our cities, states, streets, parks, and buildings, but who would probably offend the hell out of you if you got to talking with them about racial equality, gender equality, gay marriage, religious differences, etc...

It seems reasonable to erase the name of someone who was an active force in a violent white supremacist movement. It's a slippery slope, of course, and could lead to the removal of names all over the place, but I think it's a reasonable price to pay to reduce symbolic support for views, policies, and behaviors that we now find reprehensible.

I'm less concerned that 18th and 19th century politicians might have spoken privately against "gay rights," since "gay" doesn't seem to have been connected to homosexuality until the early 20th century. If we had a building named for someone who went out of his way to murder homosexuals, otoh, I'd say that we should seek a name change.

A different argument would concern what it says about us as a culture that we put names on everything, and that the names almost always represent insider politicians or the very rich (or both).

[Mike Corey]

I think there's a compelling argument for having kept the name, despite that history: It's not a bad thing to learn from the people whose currently abhorrent views were once acceptable. It reminds us that we can make progress, IMO, and is arguably superior to erasing the name and the lessons altogether.

I certainly understand and respect the move, and I don't believe anyone at Duke is in danger of being unaware of our nation's or NC's racist upbringing.

But I think the more pressing danger is that we too often mythologize our understanding of folks like George Washington, whose good and bad must be understood as we try and understand the good and bad in our nation's past and present. That Washington's name remains a fixture in our society gives us the opportunity to know him and our origins better.

Since this change has been made, however, I might suggest a new name for the dorm that would also serve as an education to students and alums: Nicholas Rencher Harris.

Mr. Harris was the first black member of the Durham Board of Education, and the first black Durham city councilman. His papers are available exclusively through Duke Libraries.

[hurleyfor3]

They may have already identified the donor, and it makes sense to have a boring buffer name for a year. I wonder what the going price is for this sort of naming opportunity?

I'm $10 million bid. Hmmm... Rubenstein? Gross? Gates? McClendon? I guess there's already Gross Chem, different Gross though.

[cspan37421]

Aycock

Brodhead

the witty reply that writes itself

[cspan37421]

Anybody like Andy Samberg and The Lonely Island?

We could hit up Mr. Taccone for a donation*
- then we'd have a Jorma-tory.

Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week.
Try the salad bar! Don't forget to tip your server.



* he's probably NOT on a boat

[kAzE]

Ah, East Campus, so many good memories . . . and bad ones . . . like the time I was living in Pegram and a rat died somewhere in the ceiling outside of my room and it smelled like dead rat for a week before maintenance finally found it and removed it.

[Tappan Zee Devil]

Yeah, I suspect the actual interim name of the dorm is "This Space For Rent."

Well - at Columbia, where I am, you can name a conference room for ~$250k, so an entire dorm should bring a pretty penny.
although prices are probably less in Carolina then in NYC.