Students and faculty ask Washington and Lee to change its name

[Zorro]

Student leaders at Washington and Lee University have asked that the name of the school be changed, that the glorification of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on the campus end and that those steps be followed by lasting institutional change.

In separate efforts, a majority of faculty members has signed on to a petition calling for changing the name, according to a professor helping to lead the effort, which will be presented to university leaders Monday. The school’s president has called for a special meeting of the faculty Monday to consider a motion changing the name.

And 2,000 alumni have joined a group calling for the name to change, according to a leader of a coalition formed on social media.

The mounting pressure on the board comes at a time when monuments are falling across the country amid protests over police brutality and urgent examinations of racism, culture and the way history is remembered.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/07/02/students-faculty-ask-washington-lee-change-its-name/

[gratuitous]

1. Good on them

My (long ago) high school recently decided to change the school mascot from the Rebels to the Red Hawks. I was in one of the first graduating classes from that school more than 40 years ago, and totally endorsed today's students deciding for themselves to rename the mascot.

[obamanut2012]

2. Lexington University is the perfect name

Even Shenandoah University.

[phylny]

3. There is already a Shenandoah University

in Winchester, VA