Vanderbilt to Take 'Confederate' Off Hall

AP ^ | 09/30/03 | AP

[TomServo]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A judge ruled Tuesday that Vanderbilt University can change the name of Confederate Memorial Hall to something it considers less inflammatory.

After Vanderbilt announced plans last fall to drop "Confederate" from the building's name, the private university was sued by the Tennessee chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, whose $50,000 donation helped fund construction of the dormitory 70 years ago.

Chancellor Irvin Kilcrease, on his last day before retiring from the bench, ruled the university had fulfilled its contractual obligations to the Confederate heritage group by installing a plaque on the side of the building explaining the history of the donation.

"The name `Confederate' on its building, with the stigma of the institution of slavery, is in contradiction of its policy of diversity and makes it extremely difficult to recruit minority faculty members and minority students," Kilcrease wrote.

Vanderbilt Chancellor Gordon Gee said in announcing the change that some students, faculty and staff refused to set foot in the dorm.

Doug Jones, an attorney for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, said a decision had not been made on whether to appeal.

[TomServo]

Dixie Ping!

[Bogey78O]

"The name `Confederate' on its building, with the stigma of the institution of slavery, is in contradiction of its policy of diversity and makes it extremely difficult to recruit minority faculty members and minority students,"

How long till the stigma of colonialism, sexism, imperialism, et al is cited as a reason for removing "Colonial" and "America" from buildings?

[Founding Father]

My money and my kid DON'T go to Vanderbilt.

[Steely Glint]

This is an outrage.

[Richard-SIA]

This sort of **** is why I chose to hang a small confederate flag in my store, even if I am a "Yankee" in Nevada!

So far no one has mentioned it in any way, so if anyone if offended they do not feel strongly enough about the "issue" to speak up.

[wardaddy]

God bless you.

White guilt is insatiable.....the need for folks to feel good about percieving that they are good by having good thoughts is the siren call of this era sadly.

...and why not?....it's free.

Minorities laugh at us all over the world for our collective "chumpness". It's percieved as a weakness. Dominant cultures do not as rule implode within from guilt. We are charting new territory here.

[karenbarinka]

No surprise Vanderbilt is sanitizing history for your protection. Vanderbilt employs one of the so-called "scholars" out to destroy Mel Gibson and his pro-Christian movie about The Passion of Jesus Christ. Vanderbilt professor Amy-Jill Levine believes the Christian Bible is nothing more than anti-semitic fairy tales and she and her fellow travellers have spent months demonizing Mel because he won't edit The Bible according to politically correct revisionism, leaving it so full of holes that it looks like Swiss cheese.

We did win the cold war, right? I'm asking because all this rewriting of history and destruction of religion sure smell like the old Soviet Union. Maybe it's just because Boris was just in town!

[wardaddy]

My late maternal great grandpa traveled from Smith County Mississippi in the late 1800s to attend Peabody (the actual campus in question as you know).

No small feat back then for a piney woods lad of modest means.

One of my neighbors is a Vandy professor and a conservative. He tells me he has to keep a low profile and he is in top secret engineering research....and yes, I know nothing about it but that.

He despises Gee.

[shuckmaster]

I've been searching Confederate news links for nearly 6 years & I've never seen a story appear in as many different newspapers as this one has since it broke yesterday.

[LibKill]

PC strikes again.

[Constitution Day]

I'm pi$$ed but not surprised.

They should select the name of a suitable invertebrate.

[STONEWALLS]

" makes it extremely difficult to recruit minority faculty members and minority students," Kilcrease wrote."

translation: the athletic dept might lose some ball players.....as far as the faculty goes, why is it necessary to "recruit" ANY professor based on race?.....there's a glut of PhDs out there looking for teaching positions......the idea that students will become better scholars simply by being taught by a minority is nuts and everybody knows it.....nobody will ever say this publically at a faculty Senate meeting however.....to do so would be committing job suicide.....

[stainlessbanner]

What an insult to the UDC and Americans everywhere.

[4CJ]

This sort of **** is why I chose to hang a small confederate flag in my store, even if I am a "Yankee" in Nevada!

Kudos to you!

[4CJ]

What an insult to the UDC and Americans everywhere.

So much for the university's intergrity. The ethnic cleansing continues.

[sandydipper]

-- some students, faculty and staff refused to set foot in the place

Sounds like some folks need an attitude adjustment. How about we just kick your butts.

[HELLRAISER II]

I don't have white guilt, this is Bull$hit, but then again they're after Whitey so it doesn't make a hill of beans to anyone. I guess it would be o.k. though if it was named sodomy hall or S&M study hall. It's o.k. to have some fag or some minority group on a wall but it's not if it has anything having to do with Southern history on the walls, even though we paid for it literally.

[wardaddy]

Bump!