A Philosopher and a Slaver, but No Longer a Name on a Library No one disputes that George Berkeley was among Ireland’s greatest thinkers, but he was also an unapologetic slaver. Now, Trinity College Dublin is taking his name off one of its buildings. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/08/world/europe/george-berkeley-trinity-college-dublin.html excerpt: The library is not Berkeley’s only namesake. The University of California, Berkeley, was also named for the philosopher. According to the Berkeley Historical Society, trustees of the then-private college settled on naming it after him in 1866, inspired in part by his missionary zeal and a poem he wrote: Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day: Time’s noblest offspring is the last. Several years ago, Berkeley renamed two buildings dedicated to former faculty members tarnished by racism, but there has been no serious discussion at the university of changing its own name. don't think that's gonna last too long
If hypothetically Dallas was named after a problematic figure would it be the responsibility of the city or the the University of Texas Dallas campus to change the name? UC is a state college system. The name at the end is based on the city the affiliate college part of that system resides in.
Surprised they haven't taken down every American revolutionary war, founding father and civil war hero statute, north and south, for their troubling views on race yet. I'm sure we will get there.
Also the City is also named Berkeley so the University could drop the name “Berkeley” and still go by “University of California, Berkeley Campus”. As a CAL alumni and donor I’m fine with keeping the name Berkeley as the Bishops contributions to Empiricism is particularly fitting to a university. It’s going to be hard to find someone from a few hundred years ago who didn’t have some attitudes or personal history that aren’t considered offensive now. For example if we changed the name to “Plato” well Plato also supported slavery and pedophilia. If the University does change the name im not going to burn my CAL gear and will still donate to the University. The name change won’t fundamentally change the university anymore than when Stanford changed their sports teams names from “Indians” to “The Cardinal”.
