As we have noted, the presumption of continuity enjoyed by a tradition, practice or symbol can be overcome. The university’s mission and core values are paramount, and where a tradition, practice or symbol has a significant detrimental effect on the pursuit of the university’s mission or the observance of its core values, the university should take action. In assessing the effects, the context matters.

The university’s mission statement asserts the importance of diversity and inclusion as core values. It declares that “[w]e are committed to excellence and diversity in our students, faculty, staff, and all of our activities,” and that “[w]e provide an inclusive environment where innovation and freedom of intellectual inquiry flourish.”

The College of Arts and Sciences is central to UC’s educational mission and its commitment to diversity and inclusion. The college’s curricular and research reach is expansive, and it is in A&S classes that students transition to undergraduate life and form impressions of UC that will shape their experiences and relationships for years to come. Diversity must flourish in A&S, and inclusion must be a defining characteristic. This is vital for the well-being and development of each and every student. It is essential if the college is to successfully recruit and retain an excellent and diverse student body.

To commemorate Charles McMicken in this particular context and way – as the titular brand of the College of Arts and Sciences, as the single name that connotes the college – is highly incongruous and raises significant conflict with the observance of core values. Using McMicken’s surname without acknowledging his legacy of racially discriminatory exploitation and exclusion presents a sanitized account of him and his relationship to UC that betrays academic values. Elaboration is required to set the record straight, but elaboration is wholly impractical in this context. To serve effectively as the name of the college, the McMicken surname must be capable of being used whenever the college is mentioned or represents itself, without burdensome qualification and explanation. Continuing to use McMicken’s surname unqualifiedly in these circumstances bows to the impracticality of qualification and explanation, but thereby compounds the conflict with mission and core values. It signals that UC prefers continuity in an honorific or commemorative recognition (a value not specified in the mission) more than forthright commitment to diversity and inclusion (values explicitly stated in the mission), and that UC will compromise academic values to do so. It is to act with relative indifference to diversity and inclusion, reinforcing McMicken as a symbol of the university’s inability to break from its past and truly progress.

The effects extend further. Students deeply desire a sense of inclusion and welcome at UC, and experiences of exclusion and unwelcome regrettably occur. They are harmful and injurious to the student immediately affected, and they model exclusion and unwelcome in ways that set back the development of all students. For many, UC’s adherence to the McMicken surname with the College of Arts and Sciences symbolizes the prevalence of these experiences as normal and tolerated occurrences at UC. It adds to the harmfulness of these experiences, rooting them in a tradition that began with segregationist intentions and persists today in neglect and unresponsiveness.

These effects are significant and detrimental to the university’s pursuit of its mission and the observance of its core values, and the university accordingly should take action.