A Yale University associate fellow has resigned over the university's decision to rename Calhoun College, according to the Yale Daily News.
Geraldo Rivera — a Fox News media personality — tweeted Sunday morning that he decided to step down from his position as an associate fellow of Calhoun College. His decision came after Yale released a statement one day prior renaming Calhoun College after Grace Murray Hopper. CNN reported that Yale faculty, students and alumni had protested over Calhoun’s support of slavery as a former vice president.
“Resigned yeterday (sic) as Associate Fellow of #CalhounCollege at #Yale. Been an honor but intolerant insistence on political correctness is lame,” Rivera said in the tweet.
In a post on his website, Rivera added that “ … once we start messing with history to bend it to contemporary ideals and sensitivities, it might as well be written with disappearing ink.”
Yale President Peter Salovey originally chose to preserve the namesake of Calhoun College to remember “one of the most disturbing aspects” of Yale’s past, according to the Yale Daily News. “Erasing Calhoun’s name from a much-beloved residential college risks masking this past, downplaying the lasting effects of slavery and substituting a false and misleading narrative, albeit one that might allow us to feel complacent or, even, self-congratulatory,” Salovey wrote in an email sent in April.
“I’m happy that the name is Grace Murray Hopper,” Head of Calhoun College Julia Adams told the Yale Daily News. “She’s an inspirational figure for many reasons, and I’m delighted that such a widely popular name among the broader Yale community has been chosen."
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
Donate
