Last week, the University of Vermont Board of Trustees voted to remove the name of Guy W. Bailey, UVM’s 13th president, from the main university library. The official name for the building, previously Guy W. Bailey/David W. Howe Memorial Library, is now David W. Howe Memorial Library.
This decision was reached following recommendation by the university’s Renaming Advisory Committee, established in March of this year. Composed of faculty, alumni and students, the committee followed a process and set of principles developed at Yale University, which includes the opportunity for members of the community to comment.
The proposal to remove Bailey’s name, submitted by associate professor Jackie Weinstock and signed by more than 100 members of the UVM faculty, cites Bailey’s involvement with the Vermont eugenics movement of the 1920s and 30s as grounds for revoking the naming honor.
After review of the proposal and subsequent research, the committee concluded that Bailey was significantly involved in promoting eugenics, which led to involuntary sterilizations of poor women, darker-skinned French Canadians and Native Americans. Because this legacy is at odds with the mission of the university and because the building in question plays a substantial role in forming community on campus – two of the principles that guide the renaming committee – a recommendation was made to the board to remove Bailey’s name.
UVM Today connected with Ron Lumbra, chair of the committee, alumnus and trustee, to learn more about this decision and the work behind it:
Communities around the country are debating the role of monuments and memorials and the legacy of those we’ve honored in the past. What advice would you give to others making decisions like this one?
A couple pieces of advice come to mind.
First, it’s ok to use existing frameworks to guide your decision making. We found Yale University’s criteria and process to be clear and compelling and an appropriate one for us to use at UVM.
Second, engage your community in the decision. Here, that began with our students, and it continued by appointing capable representation on our committee, including scholars from relevant disciplines. We also made sure to create opportunities for all at UVM to share their thoughts.
The criteria you used are quite nuanced in the way they ask you to consider the issue over time. In this case, you needed to research and discuss whether eugenics was widely contested and/or at odds with the mission of the university a) during Bailey’s time b) during the time of the naming and c) today. You also needed to consider how central the library is to UVM’s community. Tell us about that process.
Two of these principles most strongly contributed to our recommendation. Eugenics is sharply at odds with the mission of the University of Vermont today. We also know the library to be central to forming community on the campus. Additionally, we found another of Bailey’s legacies—the serious financial mismanagement of the university—to be fundamentally at odds with our mission. These conclusions led to our unanimous recommendation to remove Bailey’s name.
How widely eugenics was contested during Bailey’s time and at the time of naming, 19 years after his death, was not really a factor in our recommendation due to a lack of information. As the report notes, eugenics was considered by many “an intellectually progressive idea built on a foundation of science” in the 20s and early 30s. That’s a cautionary tale for every generation moving forward.
Beyond renaming, the committee also recommended that the university establish “a lasting educational effort” on the history and impact of eugenics and UVM’s role in it. Tell us more about this recommendation.
As an institution of higher education, we should take meaningful steps to document and understand the past and educate current and future generations. This could take the form of seminars, exhibits (such as the one currently in the Library), public art or monuments, or other ideas.
Topics like eugenics—at the intersection of medicine, technology, identity, ethics and justice—continue to be relevant today, and institutions like UVM must confront the role they have played in the past and should play in the future.
Source: UVM News