Yale will rename Calhoun College to honor ‘trailblazing’ alum Grace Murray Hopper Will honor ‘trailblazing’ alum Grace Murray Hopper

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NEW HAVEN >> Yale University’s Calhoun College will be renamed to honor Grace Murray Hopper, a Yale alumna who was a “trailblazing computer scientist, brilliant mathematician and teacher, and dedicated public servant,” Yale President Peter Salovey announced Saturday.

The decision, made Friday by the 19-member Yale Corporation, reverses the trustees’ decision in April not to rename Calhoun, at the end of an academic year in which debates and discussions were held across campus.

Hopper was an early computer scientist who foresaw the importance the technology would have in daily life.

“At a time when people all thought that only specialists would touch a computer, she anticipated where we are today,” Salovey said Saturday in a conference call.

Hopper received a master’s from Yale in 1930 in mathematics and a doctorate in mathematics and mathematical physics in 1934, according to information provided by Yale.

She was on the team that developed the first computer language, “compiler,” in 1952 and was instrumental in creating word-based computer languages, including COBOL.

The quad at Calhoun College at Yale University in New Haven The quad at Calhoun College at Yale University in New Haven Photo: Ed Stannard — New Haven Register File Photo Photo: Ed Stannard — New Haven Register File Photo Image 1 of / 59 Caption Close Yale will rename Calhoun College to honor ‘trailblazing’ alum Grace Murray Hopper 1 / 59 Back to Gallery

Hopper also served in the U.S. Naval Reserve for 20 years and was called into active duty at age 60, retiring as a rear admiral at 79. She died in 1992 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Related: “Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992): A legacy of innovation and service.”

She received the National Medal of Technology and in 2016 was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

“I’m really thrilled that our community will embrace Grace Hopper and get to know her better on this campus,” Salovey said Saturday.

He pointed out that she coined the phrase “bug” to refer to software glitches.

Following Salovey’s announcement Saturday, pieces of masking and duct tape were used to conceal Calhoun’s name from signs and maps at the residential college. Head of College Julia Adams said the college house opened its doors after the announcement.

“I was thrilled. I think (Grace Murray Hopper) is an amazing person, inspirational and she really pushed boundaries in sciences and served her country in the military. She was wonderful,” Adams said.

This is the second residential college at Yale to be named after a woman, Adams said.

According to Kica Matos, director of immigrant rights and racial justice for the Center for Community Change, not only is the name change a victory for the New Haven and Yale communities, but it is also a way to recognize the importance of gender equality.

“This is a good step in the right direction for gender justice especially at a time for when we are seeing by indications of this administration of deeply misogynistic statements. Just last week, (U.S. Sen.) Elizabeth Warren, (D-Mass.), was silenced by fellow senators for speaking out against a man who has a history of bigotry and racism,” Matos, a New Haven resident, said. “To have the university step up and celebrate women is very courageous and very timely.”

Salovey said the Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming, also known as the Witt Committee, after its chairman, law and history professor John Witt, laid down guidelines for the university to follow in considering new names only in exceptional circumstances.

“We have a strong presumption against renaming buildings on this campus. I have been concerned all along and remain concerned that we don’t do things that erase history,” Salovey said.

In his announcement, Salovey wrote: “This decision overrides my announcement in April of last year that the name of Calhoun College would remain. At that time, as now, I was committed to confronting, not erasing, our history. I was concerned about inviting a series of name changes that would obscure Yale’s past. These concerns remain paramount, but we have since established an enduring set of principles that address them. The principles establish a strong presumption against renaming buildings, ensure respect for our past, and enable thoughtful review of any future requests for change.”

He said a prime reason for deciding to rename Calhoun was because his strong stand in promoting slavery are “at odds with the values of this university.” His views “hardened over his life,” Salovey said Saturday, and at the end of his life Calhoun went so far as to repudiate the Declaration of Independence’s promise of liberty for all.

“Unlike other namesakes on our campus, he distinguished himself not in spite of these views but because of them,” Salovey’s announcement said.

“Although it is not clear exactly how Calhoun’s proslavery and racist views figured in the 1931 naming decision, depictions in the college celebrating plantation life and the ‘Old South’ suggest that Calhoun was honored not simply as a statesman and political theorist but in full contemplation of his unique place in the history of slavery.”

While many of those depictions, including three portraits of Calhoun and a number of stained-glass windows, have been removed from the college, Salovey said Calhoun will be memorialized in an appropriate way.

The Witt Committee “made it very clear that one is not to remove the evidence of the name,” Salovey said. “The evidence of Calhoun’s connection to Yale that exists on this campus will not change.”

For example, the statue of Calhoun as one of eight “worthies” on the side of Harkness Tower will remain.

While there have been numerous protests by students and members of the community, including one Friday that resulted in the arrests of four protesters, Salovey said, “I wouldn’t say that any one group is privileged in providing input over any others. ... We engage with ideas however they get to us.”

In his announcement, Salovey wrote: “As we considered potential namesakes, the trustees and I benefited from hundreds of unique naming suggestions made by alumni, faculty, students, and staff who either advocated for a name change to this college or submitted ideas for the names of the two new residential colleges. This community input was indispensable: Hopper’s name was mentioned by more individuals than any other, reflecting the strong feeling within our community that her achievements and life of service reflect Yale’s mission and core values.”

Ultimately, Salovey said, “The Yale Corporation and I had a short list of names, all of which were considered on many dimensions.”

Salovey said he had asked Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway and Adams “to determine when this change best can be put into effect.” He said alumni will be free to associate themselves with either name.

In his freshman address in August 2015, Salovey had charged the Yale community “to engage on this matter with the kind of reflective, thorough and civil consideration that I believe it clearly deserves.” Holloway also raised the issue of controversial names in his freshman address.

The debate, which has cropped up over decades, flared again after a white man, claiming he wanted to start a race war, killed nine black church-goers in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2015. The massacre led to a successful effort to remove the Confederate battle flag from the statehouse grounds.

Calhoun, an 1804 Yale graduate, served as vice president of the United States and as a U.S. senator, but left a legacy of virulent white supremacy, calling slavery “a positive good” for African Americans.

He was the first to be honored when Yale introduced residential colleges, modeled after those in English universities.

In his announcement that Calhoun’s name would not be changed, Salovey said, “Our core mission is to educate and discover. These ideals guided our decisions. Through teaching and learning about the most troubling aspects of our past, our community will be better prepared to challenge their legacies.”

The announcement included decisions that the title of college “master” would be changed to “head of college” and that the 13th and 14th residential colleges, which will open this fall, would be named after Anna Pauline “Pauli” Murray, a black civil rights activist, and Benjamin Franklin.

Students expressed anger at the announcements concerning Calhoun and Franklin in a meeting at Battell Chapel. Their ire over Franklin was based on his having been a slave­owner — who later became an abolitionist — and because they believed that the trustees had chosen the name based on the wishes of Charles Johnson, who had donated $250 million to construction of the new colleges.

Then, on June 13, an African-American dining hall employee at Calhoun College took a broom handle and broke a windowpane that depicted enslaved people in a cotton field. The window was one of a set that illustrated Calhoun’s life and the antebellum era in which he lived. All have since been removed from the college, as have three portraits of Calhoun.

Corey Menafee was charged by Yale police with second-degree reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor, and first-degree criminal mischief, a felony, but Yale asked that the charges be dismissed and rehired Menafee.

A rally in support of Menafee outside the Elm Street courthouse organized by community activists, including Unidad Latina en Accion was one of many held in the following months calling on Yale to “change the name.”

However, Saturday’s victory would not have been possible if it weren’t for the unwavering support of students, community activists and city leaders all fighting to achieve a common goal, Matos said.

“This is something we fought hard for and finally the corporation decided to step up and take a stance for racial justice. I am happy Calhoun’s name will no longer disgrace the name of the university or the city,” Matos said. “These victories really happen because of community leaders, faculty, city residents and students coming together to see change” Matos said.

On Aug. 1, Salovey announced that he had appointed a Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming and opened the possibility of renaming Calhoun. The committee issued its report on Dec. 2.

In his message accompanying release of the naming committee’s report, he said, “The committee described a strong presumption against renaming. However, it also recommended that we adopt a formal process to address requests to reconsider a historical building name.”

Salovey then named a three-member panel, composed of two professors and an alumnus, to make a recommendation based on that report.

That three-member group recommended that the name of Calhoun College be changed. Among its points, the panel said, “It is clear to us ... that Calhoun himself defined a principal legacy — his defense of racial inequality as integral to national development — fundamentally at odds with Yale’s mission of educating future leaders within ‘an ethical, interdependent, and diverse community.’”

Call Ed Stannard at 203-680-9382. Register reporter Sam Norton contributed to this report.