Yale religious studies professor Steven Davis is trying to end a tradition that has been with the school since the 1930s.
Davis, who has led the Pierson residential college at Yale since July 2013, will no longer allow students to call him “master,” the Yale Daily News reported. In an email to his students, Davis asked to be addressed as “doctor” or “professor,” citing the racial and gender hierarchies associated with the title “master.”
“I think there should be no context in our society or in our university in which an African-American student, professor or staff member — or any person, for that matter — should be asked to call anyone ‘master,’” Davis wrote. “And there should be no context where male-gendered titles should be normalized as markers of authority.”
The “masters” at Yale are the faculty members that serve as chief administrators of each residential college.
“He or she is responsible for the physical well-being and safety of students in the residential college, as well as for fostering and shaping the social, cultural, and educational life and character of the college,” according to the university website.
Before freshman year, all incoming students are assigned to one of Yale’s 12 residential colleges, and remain members of that community for all four years of school.
The other residential colleges at Yale will continue to use the term “master,” although Davis told the Daily News that he would encourage the others to embrace the change.
At least one other master wrote on Facebook that she was “in complete agreement with Steve Davis on this.”
This news comes soon after Yale students petitioned the administration to change the name of one of the other residential colleges named after John C. Calhoun. Students took issue with the name of the college honoring Calhoun, a known slave supporter, after the Charleston shooting.
h/t Campus Reform