Princeton Board Votes to Keep Woodrow Wilson’s Name on Campus Buildings
By ALEXANDRA MARKOVICH

PRINCETON, N.J. — The board of trustees at Princeton University said on Monday that it had voted to keep Woodrow Wilson’s name on campus buildings and programs, despite student protests last year that led to a review of Wilson’s legacy here.

Following a racially charged 32-hour sit-in in November, Christopher L. Eisgruber, the university president, signed an agreement to consider removing Wilson’s name from Princeton’s public policy school and a residential college because of Wilson’s views on race.

While it left Wilson’s name in place, the board called “for an expanded and more vigorous commitment to diversity and inclusion at Princeton” in a statement. To that end, it endorsed the creation of a new program to diversify the ranks of its doctoral candidates, recommended that the campus’s artworks and iconography better reflect the school’s current makeup and pledged to focus “on aspects of Princeton’s history that have been forgotten, overlooked, subordinated or suppressed.”

It also voted to change the university’s informal motto, “Princeton in the nation’s service and the service of all nations,” which was derived from a speech Wilson gave to celebrate the school’s 150th anniversary. A new version, “Princeton in the nation’s service and the service of humanity,” was suggested by Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the Supreme Court, a Princeton alumna, in 2014.

On Monday, Mr. Eisgruber said in an interview that the trustees had “rightly reached the conclusion” that the best way to pursue diversity and inclusion “is not by tearing down names from the past but rather being more honest about our history, including the bad parts of our history.”

Wilson has been a much-loved figure at Princeton, but in September, the Black Justice League, a student activist group, distributed posters around campus about his views on race, including his comment to an African-American leader that segregation “is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen.”

As president of the United States, Wilson reinstituted segregation in the federal work force, admired the Ku Klux Klan and believed that black Americans were not worthy of full citizenship.

In the months after the sit-in, the board appointed the Wilson Legacy Review Committee to consider how the university should recognize Wilson, who before two terms in the White House was New Jersey’s governor and Princeton’s president. The committee invited scholars and community members to comment online and in small groups.

In explaining the board’s move, Brent Henry, chairman of the review committee and vice chairman of the trustees, said that “at the end of the day, what we learned was that Wilson was a complicated and flawed individual.” But, he added, “when you look at the pluses and minuses, we didn’t feel that the minuses were enough to eliminate his name.”

Other universities have been dealing with similar issues about historic figures honored on their campuses. Students at Yale have called for Calhoun College, named for former Vice President John C. Calhoun, a slave owner, to be renamed. The university has not yet announced a decision.

Among other demands by the Princeton protesters was the removal of a mural depicting Wilson from a campus dining hall. But that decision is not up to the board of trustees. Instead, it is up to Eduardo Cadava, the head of Wilson College. Mr. Cadava has not made a decision on the mural, but an undergraduate committee has formed to advise him.

The protesters also demanded cultural-competency training for the faculty and staff, the inclusion of a general-education requirement on the history of a marginalized people and the creation of a cultural space on campus dedicated to black students. Only the last demand has been fulfilled.

In a statement on the trustees’ announcement, the Black Justice League said that “while we are not surprised, we are, disappointed nevertheless” by the decision. It said the other changes were “largely meaningless platitudes.”

仇視黑人！威爾遜瑕不掩瑜 普林斯頓不除名

美國普林斯頓大學學生組織「黑人正義聯盟」去年秋天以來，要求該校將「威爾遜公共政策&國際事務學院」的「威爾遜」名稱拿掉，因為威爾遜是種族隔離主義與種族歧視主義者，該校4日宣布不採其議，因為威爾遜之過不掩其功。

數月以來，美國多所大專院校變更校徽、大樓名稱、校訓等符號，有的因為它們犯忌，有的因為它們過時。「黑人正義」成員去年11月在普大校長辦公室靜坐32小時，要求普大所有掛名「威爾遜」的方案與建築去掉「威爾遜」。

威爾遜在1902至1910年擔任普大校長，1913至1921年是美國總統，他創設美國的聯邦儲備體系，領導美國參加第一次世界大戰，致力國際永久和平，因打造「國際聯盟」而獲1919年諾貝爾和平獎。但他支持種族隔離，阻礙19、20世紀之交黑人中產階級興起，拒絕讓黑人學生進入長春藤盟校。

普大校長艾斯葛魯柏表示，學生的立場改變了世人討論、紀念威爾遜的方式，這是可嘉的一面，世人將會看出，後人崇敬的所有歷史人物都有瑕有瑜、得失兼具，但「我們如果據此而拒絕敬人，我們將沒有可敬之人。恰當的態度應該是，我們敬人，但誠實面對他們的缺失」。

他說，「我們必須承認，成就偉大的人也造成傷害，普大有很長一段時間排他，我們必須誠實面對那段過去。」普大因此回應學生要求，承諾增加博士班少數族裔的人數，以及致力校園符號與藝術多樣化。

普大組成一個十人委員會檢視威爾遜其人其事及校園種族關係，徵集威爾遜專家及600多位校友、教員與公眾意見。

報告說，普大高層的結論是，威爾遜的成就值得緬懷，只要大家也坦白承認他的瑕疵，他的成就是普大使用他名字的原因之一，「普大必須公開且坦白承認，如同其他歷史人物，威爾遜身後留下正面與負面迴響」，使用他的名字「並不表示認可他那些牴觸我們當代價值的觀點與行動」。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/nyregion/princeton-board-votes-to-keep-woodrow-wilsons-name-on-campus-buildings.html

2016-04-06．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯彭淮棟