Monday, Nov. 27, 2017

Page 1

Monday, Nov. 27, 2017 | Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com

IDS After flyers circulated on campus, students and faculty ask themselves

what’s in a name?

FILE PHOTO

Jordan Hall was named for former IU President David Starr Jordan. Jordan was an ichthyologist and made significant contributions to eugenics, or the science of improving humans through controlled breeding. By Christine Fernando

S

ctfernan@indiana.edu

tudents and faculty members found slips of papers marked with the words #renameJordan and #decolonizeIU strewn across floors and left in classrooms and doors in Jordan Hall on Monday night. Scott Michaels, IU professor and associate chair for research in the biology department, said the anonymous flyers represent a movement to remove the name of David Starr Jordan from Jordan Hall. Each of the papers left in Jordan Hall had facts about Jordan’s contributions to eugenics, the science of improving humans through controlled breeding. Jordan was an ichthyologist, a scientist who studies fish, and served as the president of IU from 1884 to 1891. Michaels said he has met with the students who left the flyers, but they wish to remain anonymous. “It may have kicked the hornet’s nest to get things moving faster, but we need to stop and talk about these things,” Michaels said. In a series titled “The Blood of the Nation,” Jordan promoted taking people he deemed unworthy out of the gene pool through sterilization. Jordan wrote that sterilizing people who had low IQ scores or were mentally ill, weak or disabled in any way kept them from passing down their genes and improved the human species. Jordan chaired the Committee on Eugenics of the American Breeder’s Association, which created a

sterilization program in California between 1909 and 1979. Jordan also founded the Human Betterment Foundation, which advocated for legalizing the sterilization of the mentally ill. According to a 2005 paper by University of Michigan professor Alexandra Stern, 30 states legalized sterilization and sterilized 60,000 people in 70 years.

“What do you do with someone like that who’s made great contributions on one hand and was just a bad person on the other hand?” Scott Michales, IU professor of biology

Indiana was the first of these states to legalize involuntary sterilization in 1907. “It’s easy to see those eugenicists as wackadoodles, but people bought into this, not just Jordan,” Michaels, an IU biology professor, said. Gabriel Zentner, IU associate professor of biology, said Jordan opposed racial mixing in order to preserve racial purity. In his biography on Jordan, “David Starr Jordan: Prophet of Freedom,” historian Edward Burns wrote that Jordan once said, “to say that one race is superior to another is merely to confirm the common observation of every intelligent citizen.” Luke Baker, an IU Ph.D. student studying biology, said he was proud to see many biology professors us-

ing the flyers to question Jordan and call out his harmful views. Sneha Palliyil, a Ph.D. student studying biology, said she thinks the name change will come if they don’t let the conversation die. Women’s March Indiana, Btown Justice and Students Against State Violence joined the conversation to change the name by tweeting along with the hashtag #renameJordan throughout the past week. In March, the Palo Alto Unified School District school board made a unanimous decision to change the name of David Starr Jordan Middle School in California by the 2018-19 school year after Palo Alto residents began criticizing Jordan. Michaels is on the fence about what should be done. “What do you do with someone like that who’s made great contributions on one hand and was just a bad person on the other hand?” he said. “Do we chisel their names off all the buildings? I don’t know the answer to that.” He said he thought there were better ways to bring up the conversation than using anonymous flyers. He found flyers in display cases and posted over lab posters. Some of them were left in research labs, which Michaels said was a safety hazard. Palliyil said the flyers spread the controversy and made changing the legacy Jordan leaves at IU possible. Baker said the flyers also made many students and faculty members aware of a problem they did not know existed before. SEE JORDAN, PAGE 8

Hoosiers headed to Elite Eight after victory LAMP

lights the way with new major

By Michael Ramirez michrami@umail.iu.edu @michrami_

Throughout this season, No. 2 IU has been able to get a barrage of shots off in each game, but the Hoosiers found a different way to get the job done against New Hampshire on Saturday night at Bill Armstrong Stadium. With just seven shots and only two of them on target, IU was outshot by New Hampshire in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. However, the Hoosiers put together a precise, clinical performance in order to get a 2-1 win and advance to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals. “As you keep playing better teams as we keep moving on, that’s what it has to be,” junior attacker Cory Thomas said. “You’re not going to get 30 shots per game. You’re going to get, as good as we are, five decent chances and it really comes down to whether you can put it into the net. Tonight we were pretty good.” Thomas opened the game's scoring during a fast IU start. In the 10th minute, after IU junior defender Rece Buckmaster created space on the right wing, he swung a cross into the box for Thomas, who connected with the cross with his head to score the goal.

By Rebecca Ellis rebellis@iu.edu @Rebeccae_97

BOBBY GODDIN | IDS

Junior midfielder Cory Thomas fights for the ball against New Hampshire in the third round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday evening at Bill Armstrong Stadium. Thomas scored one goal in IU's 2-1 win against New Hampshire.

For the majority of the first half, the Hoosiers dominated the Wildcats and limited their offensive opportunities through stout defensive play. Junior defender Andrew Gutman caused havoc running down

the left wing, and several Hoosiers were always waiting in the box in an effort to extend their lead. “I thought we started really well,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “The first 20 minutes we were on top of

them. We’ve worked so hard from our assessment of being more boxdangerous, and so Cory was there in the box when we needed him.” SEE SOCCER, PAGE 8

The College of Arts and Sciences will offer a new major stemming from the Liberal Arts and Management Program, which is an existing honors program that connects liberal arts with the Kelley School of Business. The management and human organization major, which will be available for registration in May 2018, provides students more access to these classes than the selective program, which only accepts 60-80 students to work toward the honors certificate, LAMP Director Rebecca Spang said. “For the last few years it has been a toll bridge,” Spang said. “What this major has done is make the bridge free.” The new major will require students to complete 42 credit hours SEE LAMP, PAGE 8


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
Monday, Nov. 27, 2017 by Indiana Daily Student - idsnews - Issuu