Story highlights Name sparked protests by faculty, staff and students

It will be renamed for Grace Murray Hopper, a pioneering computer scientist

(CNN) Yale University announced Saturday that it would change the name of an undergraduate residence college named for 19th-century American politician, Yale alumnus and slavery proponent John C. Calhoun.

"Calhoun's legacy as a white supremacist and a national leader who passionately promoted slavery as a 'positive good' fundamentally conflicts with Yale's mission and values," Yale President Peter Salovey said in a written statement released Saturday.

Calhoun was born in South Carolina in 1782 and graduated from Yale University in 1804. He was a congressman, senator, secretary of war, secretary of state and the seventh vice president. Calhoun was a vocal proponent of states' rights and slavery in the pre-Civil War South. He died in 1850.

Calhoun College is set to be renamed for Grace Murray Hopper , a pioneering computer scientist and naval officer, who graduated from the university with a PhD in mathematics in 1934.

Hopper developed the first programming language compiler, changing the way computer programs were written. Her work laid the foundation for COBOL, one of the most widely-used programming languages in existence. She retired from the US Navy at the age of 79 with the rank of rear admiral.

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