Princeton considers scrubbing Woodrow Wilson's name from campus buildings after protests

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published 20 November 2015

Following 32 hours of protests, Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber has agreed to consider student activists' demands that former President Woodrow Wilson's racist legacy be acknowledged and that his name be removed from campus buildings. Campus protesters say that Wilson, an alumnus and former university president, "advocated for separation of races and opposed efforts by civil rights leaders to combat discrimination against black people," The Washington Post reports.

Wilson's name appears on a residential college and on the school's Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs, and there is a mural of the former president in a dining hall. Eisgruber has said he agrees that the mural should not be on the wall and is beginning the process of looking into its removal. He has also agreed to write a letter to the chair of the board of trustees about the possibility of removing Wilson's name from campus, The Post reports.

Alongside those demands, Eisgruber is also considering activists' requests that the campus require all faculty and staff to complete "cultural competency courses" and that the university provide a cultural space for black students. The protests at Princeton — which culminated in an anonymous bomb threat — came amid similar protests at other universities across the country, including Georgetown University, the University of Missouri, Yale University, and Harvard University.