UPDATE: Student attempt to rename building ignites backlash

A Depression-era Lebanon Valley College leader with the last name Lynch has found himself thrust into the middle of a roiling 21st-century debate on campus civil rights.

Students at the private college in Annville have demanded administrators remove or modify Dr. Clyde A. Lynch's last name, as it appears on a campus hall, due to the associated racial connotations.

The demand was made at a forum on campus equality issues held Friday, capping a week of demonstrations calling for changes at the predominantly white institution.

Former Lebanon Valley College president Clyde A. Lynch

In that time, organizers, including members of a Black Student Union group, have been calling for policy changes they say are needed to address long-standing "institutional injustices" impacting a variety of groups on campus.

But while their remaining demands -- those seeking everything from a more diverse curriculum to facilities recognizing varied gender identities and disabilities -- appeared warmly received at Friday's forum, which was attended by Pennlive and a standing-room-only crowd of students and staff, a call to change the name of Lynch Memorial Hall has been decidedly more controversial, both at the school and beyond.

In the days that followed, commenters on pennlive.com leapt to defend Lynch, who served as the college's president from 1932 to 1950 when he died in office, saying he's been unfairly dragged into the fray by this modern-day movement.

A commenter going by the screen name "10xchamps," who identified himself as a recent graduate of the college, said "Anyone with half a brain would know that the name has nothing to do with racial connotations. It's the last name of a very generous donor who probably helped fund many of these students."

According to its website, Lynch led the college through the Great Depression and World War II, helping to raise $550,000 for a new physical education building which was named for him following his death.

The building, which housed the college's basketball court for more than 50 years, was "revitalized" into an all-academic center in 2003, now known as Lynch Memorial Hall.

But with the title recently identified as racially insensitive by activists, or at least potentially unappealing to the public eye, it is now at the center of a larger debate building on college campuses both regionally and nationwide, as minority student groups look to assert themselves and their interests at institutions long-thought to disproportionately and automatically favor male whites.

At Yale, protesters have similarly called for John C. Calhoun's name to be removed from a residential college there, citing the alumnus and former U.S. vice president's vocal support for the institution of slavery.

But Lynch's Lebanon Valley College (LVC) supporters say there's no comparison, and that his name should stay where, and as, it is.

In response, student activists who made the demand said they'd be willing to settle for adding his first name and middle initial to the building instead of removing it altogether. At Friday's forum they acknowledged no known links between Dr. Clyde A. Lynch and the practice of "Lynching" but said as is, the building and last name harken back to a period in American history when Blacks were widely and arbitrarily killed by public hangings and "Lynch Mobs."

According to Oxford Dictionary, the term "Lynching" has origins in the War of American Independence (1775-83) or more specifically with a Captain William Lynch of Pittsville, Virginia, who headed a self-constituted court with no legal authority that persecuted suspected British loyalists.

"People called this illegal punishment Lynch's law or lynch law," the resource states. "The penalties handed out were beatings or tarring and feathering, but by the mid-19th century to lynch a supposed offender was generally to hang him."

And while student organizers at LVC indicate a willingness to compromise, many critics remained unappeased and wondering, sarcastically, whether public officials like U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, places like the White House or Lynchburg, Va. might be targeted for alteration next.

"I will not longer watch NFL football when John Lynch announces. Or watch Jane Lynch on TV. Too upsetting," a commenter named "gmaven" quipped.

Another, writing under the screen name "ericblair," called the Lynch building demand "embarrassing," adding "Do they think Mr. Lynch made his money by lynching people? Perhaps the hall should be knocked down and level(ed) and all the classes held there can continue under the sky."

Commenter "Badpenny" asked "Does anyone really think that a building named Lynch Memorial Hall is memorializing lynchings?" adding that the situation recalled one "20 or so years ago, when a certain group (PETA) wanted NY to change the name of one of their towns. The town was Fishkill NY. It's a Dutch word meaning (fish) creek. It doesn't mean to go out and kill fish."

School officials at LVC, meanwhile, say they plan to meet with the students to discuss their demands further before announcing a final decision in a January Symposium on Inclusive Excellence.

Attempts to reach members of the student group were unsuccessful as of Monday.