VOL. CXVIII, No. 97
DailyBarometer.com
WEdnesday, march 2, 2016 Oregon State University
Brad anderson | THE DAILY BAROMETER
The Benton County Courthouse is named after Thomas Benton, who helped found the state of Oregon, but has also been accused of promoting white supremacy.
It’s all in the name
Corvallis buildings, parks allegedly named after racists By Marcus Trinidad Associate News Editor
Commonly used buildings and parks in Corvallis and Oregon State University campus are facing criticism for being named after alleged white supremacists and racists. With about 85,000 people living in Benton County who visit Avery Park, Arnold Dining Hall and Gill Coliseum regularly, Joseph Orosco, the OSU peace studies director, believes the community may unknowingly be keeping those historical figures whose names adorn the properties and their ideas of a ‘white utopia’ alive. During his four years at OSU, Steve Clark, Vice President of University Relations and Marketing and chair for the Architectural Naming Committee for OSU, has never had a request to rename Arnold Hall or Gill Coliseum, though he did not discount the possibility if credible evidence of racism was brought forward. “It’s not good to simply make assumptions (...) but if there is explicit evidence of racism then it would be possible to consider renaming the buildings,” Clark said. Orosco has written several articles for the Anarres Project that explored the historical significance of Benjamin Arnold and Joseph Avery, whose name’s adorn an OSU dining hall and a Corvallis public park, and examined how their radical ideals shaped America’s culture today. “To ignore (their values) is to whitewash history and it is really blind to reality,” Orosco said. Those beliefs were later perpetuated and supported by OSU, according to Orosco. According to Larry Landis, the director of OSU’s Special Collections
and Archives Research Center, Arnold was the third president of OSU, and a former confederate soldier. During his tenure as president he created a gray military cadet uniform and a cap that seemed to be modeled after the Confederacy’s uniform, Landis said. According to Landis, a lot of settlers of Oregon came from the southern or border states, and some also brought slaves with them even though the Exclusion Law of 1844 banned the settlement of African Americans in the territory. Although Arnold never had explicit documentation he shared the values of the Confederacy, Landis said that it would not be surprising if Arnold shared those values while he was president at OSU. “A name is just a name until you know the significance of the history behind it,” Landis said. Arnold was appointed to be president by bishops of the South Methodist Episcopal Church. Orosco believed that it is possible that Arnold shared a similar belief as the bishops in order to become the president. “The original vision of OSU was something that was not open to (minorities) like me. It raises a question many students are asking, ‘What does it take for a person like me to be here?’” Orosco said. Orosco said the white supremacist values and pride for the Confederacy already had been used to justify oppression and violence in order to promote their agenda. Orosco cited Dylan Roof, a man who had a vast amount of confederate memorabilia and committed a mass shooting in a historically black church, as a modern case of how symbols of the Confederacy can keep the noxious ideologies of its institution alive. According to Orosco, continuing to have those symbols seems to validate those values of anti-immigrant and anti-black, and people rally around those symbols to support their views.
“The fact we aren’t ashamed of these symbols and names means we aren’t recognizing the history of what the confederacy actually stood for,” Orosco said. “When we’re thinking of names for public spaces we want it to be reflective of our community and the values we want to push for in the future.” Universities across the country are already removing statues and renaming buildings that have ties to white supremacy or a confederate past. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill renamed Saunders Hall which was named after a Ku Klux Klan member and the University of Texas removed a statue of Jefferson Davis who was the President of the Confederate States of America. Currently students at the University of Oregon are trying to rename a building on campus named after a Ku Klux Klan member. Having a building carrying negative values, according to ASOSU Director of Campus Affairs Isamar Chavez, makes it impossible to honor certain individuals and coincides with OSU’s and Corvallis’ commitment to inclusivity. Chavez said that the anti-black sentiment of the Confederacy goes directly against the mission statement of the university. “The names of the buildings can be justified by others—but it shouldn’t. The (OSU) mission statement includes all aspects to promote justice, and if we can’t do that on our own campus then how can we do it in other communities once we graduate?,” Chavez said. Chavez said it is easy for students to be unaware of these issues, as she was unaware of OSU’s history when she transBrad Anderson | THE DAILY BAROMETER ferred to the university. She said it made her think that the world Joseph Orosco, the director of the Peace Studies program at is not as positive as she thought it Oregon State Univerisity sees a need for building name changes.
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