Rutgers’ First Black President Says University’s Name Will Stay

Jonathan Holloway, who last week became the first Black president in Rutgers University’s 254 year history, said he does not plan on changing the school’s name, which honors a man who owned slaves, NJ.com reports.

What We Know:

• “We are not going to change the name of the university,” Holloway said. “That does not mean I’m opposed to having a conversation about it.”
• Rutgers University is named after Henry Rutgers, a Revolutionary War hero and philanthropist from New York City who was also a slave owner.
• “The reason we’re not going to change the name is that names have value that exceed someone’s existence,” Holloway said. “If I were to walk around feeling bludgeoned by every name I see, I couldn’t get out of bed.” Holloway added, “My existence, my humanity, my complexity, cannot be reduced by the fact that Rutgers was a slave owner, that he could not imagine me. That’s his problem.”
• As calls for racial equality have picked up within the past few months, Rutgers students have begun signing a petition to change three of the university’s halls – Hardenbergh Hall, Frelinghuysen Hall and Milledoler Hall – named after three former university presidents who were slave owners and anti-abolitionists.
• The schools history with slavery was reveled in the Scarlett and Black project in 2016.
• Though President Holloway will not seek to change the university’s name, he is attempting to diversify Rutgers and its faculty. Many of the initial attempts will likely include back office changes. He said he hopes to have conversations with students about the campus’ past, but does not see the name as one that determines the school’s legacy.
• He also noted that at least one of the halls students are seeking to rename is a “horrible” building on campus that could be replaced.

Rutgers has taken steps to honor former slaves and prominent Black figures, naming an athletic field after Frederick Douglass last spring, and in 2017 a residence hall and a library for Sojourner Truth and James Dickson Carr, Rutgers’ first Black graduate, respectively.