The name of former President Woodrow Wilson will remain on Princeton University’s campus and buildings, the board of trustees announced Monday.
“Princeton must openly and candidly recognize that Wilson, like other historical figures, leaves behind a complex legacy of both positive and negative repercussions,” the school’s board said in a statement, according to The New York Times. Use of his name “implies no endorsement of views and actions that conflict with the values and aspirations of our time,” it added.
The decision comes after protests from a student group dubbed the Black Justice League pushed for Woodrow’s name be removed from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs because of the former president’s outspoken racism.
Student activists then held a 32-hour sit-in in the college president’s office in the fall, prompting Princeton to launch a review of the name usage.
Though Wilson’s name will remain on campus, the board did announce that the university will make changes to improve diversity based on findings by the 10-member Wilson Legacy Review Committee, which met roughly a dozen times between December and March.
“[Princeton plans] to create a more multi-faceted understanding and representation of Wilson on campus and to focus attention on aspects of Princeton’s history that have been forgotten, overlooked, subordinated, or suppressed,” the board’s statement said, such as encouraging more students from minority groups to pursue doctoral degrees.
The university’s informal motto will also change from “Princeton in the nation’s service and the service of all nations,” to “Princeton in the nation’s service and the service of humanity.”
Before he was the 28th president, Wilson was president of Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1879. He was a supporter of racial segregation and often defended the Ku Klux Klan.
