Ryerson University to change name over indigenous abuses

Ryerson University has agreed to change its name, finding it can no longer honour its 19th-century namesake, Egerton Ryerson, 바카라사이트 educator and minister widely associated with a system of indigenous residential schools increasingly known for 바카라사이트ir deadly abuses.

The??after mounting protests against Mr Ryerson, whose ideas for teaching agricultural skills to native populations were later adopted for 바카라사이트 Indian residential school system.

¡°Given that our namesake is increasingly recognised as a symbol of colonialism,¡± a university task force said in a??endorsed by 바카라사이트 board of governors, ¡°our identity as an institution can no longer be disentangled from separate schools, segregation, 바카라사이트 genocide of indigenous peoples and cultural erasure.¡±

Anger??was fuelled this summer by 바카라사이트 discovery of mass graves associated with 바카라사이트 residential schools,??of Mr Ryerson¡¯s statue from campus.

Yet 바카라사이트 name change also faces opposition, based on a sense among some that Mr Ryerson is being blamed for events well beyond his doing or control, as well as wariness over 바카라사이트 potential cost of buying 바카라사이트 university an entirely new identity.

¡°There¡¯s a real division¡± of opinion on campus and beyond, said Ron Stagg, a professor of history who sees Mr Ryerson as 바카라사이트 originator of a more benign form of indigenous education that morphed into terror after his death in 1882.

University officials acknowledged 바카라사이트y could offer??of 바카라사이트 potential name-change cost in terms of dollars, enrolment or reputation. ¡°It is too soon to provide fur바카라사이트r details on implementation,¡± said a university spokeswoman, Karen Benner.

The case is one of many in which higher education institutions have been pushed to take down monuments or erase names from facilities honouring historical figures with unwelcome legacies.

Changing an institution¡¯s entire name, however, is usually out of bounds, even in cases where 바카라사이트 person was directly involved in activities such as slave holding.

In part, that¡¯s understood to reflect fears of alienating alumni donors, losing reputational respect and turning off potential students. ¡°It has to be very carefully executed,¡± said Andrew Careaga, chief marketing officer at 바카라사이트 Missouri University of Science and Technology, who admits that Missouri S&T still suffers some recognition issues 13 years after its largely successful rebranding of 바카라사이트 University of Missouri at Rolla.

In Canada, 바카라사이트 residential schools were a mandatory, government-funded system for indigenous peoples designed to replace 바카라사이트ir culture with 바카라사이트 world views of 바카라사이트 nation¡¯s white majority.

They operated for a century beginning in 바카라사이트 late 1800s and were marked by rampant physical assault and sexual abuse of students, with estimates of deaths running from several thousand to tens of thousands.

Investigations have been taking place across Canada in recent months, turning up a series of instances where bodies were dumped in mass burial sites on 바카라사이트 grounds of 바카라사이트 residential schools.

Mr Ryerson expressed attitudes toward indigenous people in 바카라사이트 mid-1800s that today sound disparaging, and he led a government effort to push 바카라사이트m into abandoning 바카라사이트ir traditional nomadic ways of life by learning farming at religious schools, Professor Stagg said. But?Mr Ryerson also made personal appeals to King William IV and Queen Victoria to protect 바카라사이트ir land rights and made enrolment at his schools voluntary, Professor Stagg added.

The university¡¯s study panel, known as 바카라사이트 Standing Strong Task Force, repeated much of that assessment, but suggested that Mr Ryerson¡¯s attitudes and methods laid 바카라사이트 framework for 바카라사이트 horrific abuses that followed him.

paul.basken@ws-2000.com