396 Yale Professors Don’t Like Keeping the Calhoun College Name

, Spencer Irvine, Leave a comment

That’s not a trivial number:

In early May, 396 professors — many from the STEM fields — signed an open letter to university president Peter Salovey urging a reconsideration. In late May, Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences Senate followed suit with a letter of their own that garnered 335 signatures, the Yale Daily News reports.

Even though Yale decided to keep Calhoun’s name for the residential college, earlier this year three portraits of the man were removed from the building’s interior to appease concerns that posting images of the seventh vice president of the United States of America creates an oppressive and offensive atmosphere. Calhoun was a slavery advocate.

Photo by Chang’r