'Their insistence on political correctness is lame': Fox News' Geraldo Rivera RESIGNS from Yale after the school changed renamed Calhoun Coillege over ties to slavery
- The TV personality resigned as an associate fellow of Calhoun College
- He was upset that Yale was renaming the college over slavery ties
- Rivera wrote on Twitter that the voluntary position was an honor 'but intolerant insistence on political correctness is lame'
- Yale insisted the decision to change the name was not a result of political correctness
Geraldo Rivera has resigned from a voluntary position at Yale University after the school decided to change the name of a residential college because of its ties to slavery.
The Fox News personality said on Twitter that he stepped down as an associate fellow of Calhoun College - named after 19th century alumnus and former university vice president John C Calhoun, an ardent supporter of slavery.
In his post on Sunday, he said the position was an honor 'but intolerant insistence on political correctness is lame'.
Geraldo Rivera resigned from a voluntary position at Yale University after the school decided to change the name of a residential college that honors a slavery supporter
Rivera wrote Sunday on Twitter that the position was an honor 'but intolerant insistence on political correctness is lame'
After years of debate, Yale announced earlier this month that it's renaming the college after trailblazing computer scientist Grace Murray Hopper, a mathematician who earned Yale degrees in the 1930s, invented a pioneering computer programming language and became a Navy rear admiral.
Yale said in a statement Sunday that it respected Rivera's decision, but said its choice to rename the college was based on principle, not political correctness.
Yale said it was the final decision in a controversy over Calhoun's legacy that had simmered for years and boiled over with campus protests in 2015.
After years of debate, Yale University announced Saturday it will change the name of a residential college that honors a 19th century alumnus and former university vice president who was an ardent supporter of slavery, John C Calhoun
Four people were arrested in a peaceful protest as recent as Friday after they blocked street traffic
Yale said it was the final decision in a controversy over former vice president Calhoun's legacy that had simmered for years and boiled over with campus protests in 2015
University officials said Saturday the school will not remove symbols of Calhoun on campus, such as engravings and a statue atop the landmark Harkness Tower
The residential college was named for Calhoun when it was established in the early 1930s. The name received new attention as protesters on campuses around the country called for universities to address the legacies of historical figures, such as Woodrow Wilson at Princeton University in New Jersey
Four people were arrested in a peaceful protest as recent as Friday after they blocked street traffic.
'The decision to change a college’s name is not one we take lightly, but John C Calhoun’s legacy as a white supremacist and a national leader who passionately promoted slavery as a "positive good" fundamentally conflicts with Yale’s mission and values', Yale President Peter Salovey told the YaleNews.
This move overrides Salovey's decision in April that the name of Calhoun College would remain.
'At that time, as now, I was committed to confronting, not erasing, our history. I was concerned about inviting a series of name changes that would obscure Yale’s past', said Salovey.
'These concerns remain paramount, but we have since established an enduring set of principles that address them.
'The principles establish a strong presumption against renaming buildings, ensure respect for our past, and enable thoughtful review of any future requests for change'.
Yale trustees said the Ivy League university is renaming Calhoun College after trailblazing computer scientist Grace Murray Hopper, a mathematician who earned Yale degrees in the 1930s, invented a pioneering computer programming language and became a Navy rear admiral
Calhoun, a member of the Yale class of 1804, was a senator from South Carolina and a leading voice for those opposed to abolishing slavery.
He served as vice president from 1825 to 1832.
Chris Rabb, a 1992 Yale graduate, said in a telephone interview that just changing the name from a 'bad person to a good person' is not enough.
Rabb has spoken out against the name since his own days living at Calhoun College when he successfully lobbied for the removal of a stained glass window depicting a black man in shackles kneeling before Calhoun.
Calhoun, a member of the Yale class of 1804, was a senator from South Carolina and a leading voice for those opposed to abolishing slavery. He served as vice president from 1825 to 1832
'I'm underwhelmed,' said Rabb, an educator and state representative in Pennsylvania who co-founded an alumni network for black Yale graduates.
'This choice makes no corrective move toward reconciliation in light of not just the legacy of John C Calhoun, but Yale University's ties to slavery and systemic racism'.
The residential college was named for Calhoun when it was established in the early 1930s.
Calhoun College received new attention as protesters on campuses around the country called for universities to address the legacies of historical figures, such as Woodrow Wilson at Princeton University in New Jersey.
In an online essay Saturday in The New York Times, Yale senior Tobias Holden, a black Calhoun descendant, said it's wrong to treat Calhoun as a benign symbol of history.
Get my racist ancestor's name off of Yale's campus was the essay's title.
Yale University officials said the school will not remove symbols of Calhoun on campus, such as engravings and a statue atop the landmark Harkness Tower.
It also won't discourage alumni if they want to continue associating with the Calhoun name instead of Grace Hopper College.
But Salovey said he hopes the university community will 'embrace Grace Hopper and get to know her better'.
Hopper graduated from Yale in 1930 and earned a doctorate in mathematics and mathematical physics from there in 1934, just a year after Calhoun College was established.
Salovey said he hopes the university community will 'embrace Grace Hopper (pictured with Navy Secretary John Lehman in 1986) and get to know her better'
After teaching math at Vassar College in New York for nearly a decade, she enlisted in the Navy and 'used her mathematical knowledge to fight fascism during World War II', the university said.
A programming language her team invented in the 1950s was a predecessor to the widely-used COBOL.
Hopper retired as a Navy rear admiral at age 79, and died in 1992 at age 85.
She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year.
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