I am completely torn on this subject; I do not think having buildings named after Ryland and Freedman are moral given their history of decisions but, I fully see that there are negative consequences that may be too great to change the names of these buildings.

On one side just because these men gave the school a lot of money, and in Rylands case worked to make Richmond College his version of great when he was president does not mean they deserve to be honored today. The good things they did do not outweigh the bad, and just telling people more about their history (both good and bad) will not solve the problem at hand, our school is honoring bad people. Other schools that have changed names of buildings such as Georgetown University which changed two names of dorms named after past presidents who were slave owners in 2015 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/georgetown-university-to-rename-two-buildings-that-reflect-schools-ties-to-slavery/2015/11/15/e36edd32-8bb7-11e5-acff-673ae92ddd2b_story.html) have received more good press than bad. Our school will also receive good press if we change the names, and while some donors are threatening not to stop donating if there is a change other are threatening the opposite.

But despite my belief that it would be morally sound to change the names, I don’t think we will and I see why. Most of our money comes from people who do not feel we should change the names and of course our Board of Trustees does not support it. The other day in class someone mentioned students standing up and demanding change, I think this is great in theory but in reality, would do more harm than good. I do not think our administration will change their minds considering how much time was spent on the Presidential Commission and how much information came from it. In other words, I think that if this year of research didn’t change anyone’s mind not much else will. If the students tried to use the power of the bad press as someone suggested in class, I think it would hurt more than help. If you think about it some of the decisions that our administration makes to save their butts, while we may disagree with them help us too. I am NOT saying we should ignore issues that are detrimental to our safety (such as the sexual assault case that came out and leads to a restructuring of Title IX) but the better our school looks the more our degree means. *This is also an argument I could use for changing the names, and I am not using it as a reason to keep the names but a reason to think before we act*