Money is the ultimate equalizer. The names on Ryland Hall and Mitchell-Freeman should be changed. One would be hard pressed to come up with moral reasons to keep the names as they are now. However, moral reasons are not what are being considered. The Board of Trustees does not want to send the message that if you donate money that your name could be stripped from your contribution at a later date. Whether that view is personally motivated or not is irrelevant. It exists and is likely here to stay. The Board of Trustees is in charge of maintaining the well-being of the University, i.e. its finances. To that end they are doing a pretty good job. The “simplest” fix to the issue at hand would be for someone exceptionally rich to donate a vast sum of money on the condition that the names are changed. The hard part is finding that person. Odds are if any of the current/past donors cared enough then it would already be done. I have heard arguments that the Board of Trustees should listen to what the students want as ostensibly we are the heart of the university. That is unlikely to happen. Instead, we should aspire to do better when we are in their position. When we are on the boards of organizations and universities in the future, we should try to put aside our egos and listen to the student body and generation we are affecting. Will this happen? That is hard to say, only time will tell.

On a related note, the timing of the name changes was poor at best. It was done on a random Wednesday, the day after the email was sent out. The process of research and decision making took a decently long amount of time, so odds are people would not notice if the decision had been delayed a few more months to the end of the semester. This would have reduced negative publicity and given the University more time and options to deal with the backlash we now know with the benefit of hindsight was inevitable. I am not advocating for pushing the problem further down the road, but instead a more conscientious effort to apply whatever decisions were made. Ryland is not even done being renovated so the University certainly had time to make a decision on that building. With regards to Mitchell-Freeman, as a resident, I still catch myself calling it Freeman Hall. It is ingrained in my mind and it will take time for that to change. If the change had been made over the summer, then the next set of residents would naturally call it by its new name. That does not mean that people who currently live in the building and others around campus get a free pass in calling it Freeman, but instead those individuals who refer to it most would be more easily be able to set a positive example. Long story short, the whole process was a mess and the University has a lot to learn