Yale Panel Recommends Renaming Calhoun College

A Yale University task force has recommended that the campus’s Calhoun College be renamed, revisiting the controversy after a decision to keep the name was made last April, reports the Yale Daily News.

The panel comprises John Gaddis, a professor of history; Jacqueline Goldsby, a professor of English and African-American studies; and G. Leonard Baker, a 1964 alumnus of the college.

Mr. Gaddis and Ms. Goldsby had signed a faculty petition last spring seeking to change the college’s name from that of John C. Calhoun, a 19th-century U.S. vice president and senator who was a leading proponent of slavery.

Citing “Yale officials with knowledge of the group’s report,” the newspaper said the recommendation to rename the college had been submitted to the university’s president, Peter Salovey, who will present the report to the governing Yale Corporation when it meets this month.

Criticism from faculty members of the decision to keep the Calhoun name had led Mr. Salovey to establish the task force. A survey distributed in January found that nearly 65 percent of undergraduates want to see the college renamed.

Yale officials did not immediately respond to The Chronicle’s request for comment.