From The College Fix:
The statue of Columbus was removed from the California campus earlier this month, less than two weeks after President Andrew Benton announced the monument would be relocated to the university’s campus in Florence, Italy.
The university’s action comes amid intense scrutiny, with thousands of signatures gathered for two online petitions demanding the university keep the statue, which was donated in 1992 by a group representing the Columbus 500 Congress…
“I did not expect it to be popular. I didn’t do it to be popular. I did it because I believed it was the right thing to do,” the president said, according to the Pepperdine Graphic.