Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Same here. But here we go....(I swore I wouldn't be sucked into this, but here I am.)
Considering they didn't name the school after him until 30 years later, I'm sure there was no quid pro quo there.Don't know when the concept of "naming rights" came into play? In 1890 gratitude for the gift from the estate of a former trustee would have been the impetus for the naming.
You quoted the policy and then completely misapplied it. The City of Richmond is not a person. As to violating the "spirit" of the rule, your argument taken to its logical conclusion would prevent any university in any former slave state from being named by its geographical location. So there would be no UVA, no VT, no University of Alabama etc. But the University of Minnesota would be OK because it was a free state.
And I'd like to see some documentation that UR is taking money - other than tuition/fees - from the Chinese Communist Party unless you're arguing that every single PRC citizen is inherently unworthy of a UR education.
Graduates of that "liberal academic elite" Yale: Both George Bushes. Samuel Alito. Steve Mnuchin. Wilbur Ross. Clarence Thomas. Gerald Ford. I could go on and on.
Richmond is not a person. So please stop with that nonsense.
The guy owned other human beings, and used them for hard labor. "Socially acceptable" (a dubious claim, because it wasn't in more than half the country and most of the world) or not, slavery was wrong then and slaveowners knew it. UR has no business at all having a building named in his honor.
There can be nuance that is frequently lost where a person's "overall" legacy is taken into account. Washington was certainly not without sins, but there's obviously no doubt he was an extremely important figure in the founding of our country. So on balance, it can easily argued that he deserves to remain honored in the way that he is while we also recognize his shortcomings.
Williams was merely a locally relevant businessman whose primary lasting legacy was having his name on a school (which even at the time probably should not have been granted in the first place so many years after the gift and his death) thanks to a gift enabled in large part by the work of enslaved persons. Nothing in the larger context of history, civic pride, or anything else is lost by removing his name. A name which hadn't even been publicly used in conjunction with the school in several decades.
Do I think Washington, DC should be renamed? I do not.
Do I think Yale University should be renamed? This is a bit of a tricky one, as evidence appears murky and I haven't fully educated myself about it. But ultimately I don't think I would object if it was found appropriate to remove his name.
Do I think W&L should be renamed? 100% yes, and my alum wife agrees. At a minimum, Lee's name should be removed, as the good he did for the school after the war is easily outweighed by his Civil War legacy. I don't feel Washington's name needs to be removed, but would understand it if the university wanted to go in a different direction as part of removing Lee's name.
UR avoids some of the stickiest issues with this simply by not having any nationally prominent figures involved in our naming. If the university feels a firm rule that having owned slaves is disqualifying for being honored with a building name, then so be it. Little to nothing is lost by no longer giving them the distinction.
And I’ll ask this…if our law school was George Washington Law or TJ Law would UR have such a policy? My opinion is they would not.
But it wasn't. So it's totally irrelevant.
He was also the ONLY University of Richmond graduate to receive a pulitzer prize. I believe that is why he was well respected.Douglas Southall Freeman was sacked for having the wrong opinions as he lived from 1886 to 1953 and never owned slaves. It is "murky ground', putting it mildly, to distance the school from those with whom you disagree but were loyal benefactors. The reality is that we will all receive the forgiveness that we are willing to show others.
I was at a sporting event on campus, pre-covid, and the University President introduced one of the school's main Chinese benefactors. The president thank him profusely for his " generous" contribution. That was enough evidence for me.And I'd like to see some documentation that UR is taking money - other than tuition/fees - from the Chinese Communist Party unless you're arguing that every single PRC citizen is inherently unworthy of a UR education.
Chris Hamby (RC '08) won a Pulitzer and Dan Petty ('09) shared in the winning of one.He was also the ONLY University of Richmond graduate to receive a pulitzer prize. I believe that is why he was well respected.
I stand corrected. Douglas Southall Freeman was the only UR alum to have been awarded TWO Pulitizer prizes, one a biography of Lee and the other a biography of George Washington.Chris Hamby (RC '08) won a Pulitzer and Dan Petty ('09) shared in the winning of one.