As colleges and universities move to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, their campuses remain studded with tributes to a more racist past. Memorials and monuments celebrate slaveholders and segregationists, and dormitories and dining halls are named for colonizers and Confederates.
Student protests are growing, with mixed results. Although the University of North Carolina (UNC) removed its “Silent Sam” Confederate memorial after it was toppled by protestors, Georgia’s public university system recently announced that it wouldn’t rename any of 75 buildings associated with slavery, segregation, or the harm done to American Indians. 
Dr. Ainsley Carry
Dr. Ainsley Carry has been analyzing these issues for several years, and he offered his observations Wednesday in a Zoom discussion entitled “Washington Next? Disputed Monuments, Honorees, and Symbols on Campus.” The event was sponsored by the Dr. Melvin C. Terrell Education Foundation, which provides scholarships and professional development support for graduate students who plan to pursue careers in higher education. The discussion’s title (which it shares with Carry's recent book) comes from President Donald J. Trump’s controversial rhetorical question after counter-protesters supporting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee were attacked in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. Would statues of America’s first president—a slaveholder—be the next to come under fire? It was, as the moderator, Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington, a past president of the American College Personnel Association, put it, “not a conversation for the faint of heart.”
Carry takes the concerns of protesters far more seriously than did the former president. His research on the topic began when, as vice president for student affairs at the University of Southern California (USC), students met with him to request the removal of the name of Rufus B. von KleinSmid, USC’s fifth president and a leading eugenicist, from a campus building.
“I didn’t completely understand the historical context of eugenics and how it changed our world,” said Carry. “So, I wasn’t in a position to be supportive. I wasn’t in a position to say, ‘Oh, let’s look into that. Let’s bring this to the senior administration.’” KleinSmid’s name was eventually removed in 2020.
