FAS Dean Gay Outlines Process for Denamings
The Crimson | Ariel H. Kim
FAS Dean Gay stressed new urgency in de/renaming buildings and other institutional titles after the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Report, but also indicates deliberation and caution. In an email to the FAS, “Gay wrote that the [legacy of slavery] report and its findings bring ‘new urgency’ to efforts already underway within the FAS, such as evolving the school’s visual culture, diversifying faculty and staff, and expanding undergraduate financial aid.”
Gay says the process of renaming will be “guided by a December 2021 report by the Committee to Articulate Principles on Renaming, which called for the consideration of requests to be ‘careful, painstaking, and laborious’ and grounded ‘in history.’”
She stressed that “the process will approach the school’s history with humility…[and that] the decision to remove a name will be the product of ‘deep examination and learning’ and… not be based solely on the number of supporters behind it.”
