The New York Times has a good piece this morning about Southern universities' dilemma: Do they ditch Confederate imagery in an attempt to attract a broader base of students, with the result that alumni and donors close their pocket books, or do they keep the imagery? I found this quote ironic:
"The issue that all of us face is that alumni love to have the institution frozen in amber," said Gordon Gee, the chancellor of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. "The truth of the matter is that for an institution to survive, it has to grow, to look at the world as it is rather than how they want it to be."
From what I can tell, the Southern universities aren't seeking to re-establish the Confederacy or Jim Crow. They're seeking to recognize their history, and a large part of that is ante-bellum. It's not that they need "to look at the world as it is rather than how they want it to be." It's a matter of history. Reformers like the Chancellor need "to look at [history] as it is rather than how they want it to be."
