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SUNY New Paltz to drop slave-owner names from buildings
Feb 22, 2019 12:30 pm
Mid-Hudson News Network and the Daily Freeman are reporting the College Council at SUNY New Paltz [PAHL-tz] voted Feb. 21, to remove the names of slave-owning families from six buildings in the Hasbrouck Complex, on the school's main campus. The vote affirming the change was four to three, according to college President Donald P. Christian. The council did not select new names for the buildings. Some or all of the new names could come from a survey distributed to alumni last month. The buildings in question include five dormitories and the Hasbrouck Dining Hall. All five buildings which were named for Huguenot families that settled New Paltz and owned slaves. Changing the building names was recommended last year by the college-appointed diversity and inclusion [committee] and endorsed by Christian. Students had objected to the buildings’ names in the past, but heightened objections were prompted by the national debate about whether Confederate flags and statues of Confederate leaders from the Civil War era should be removed from public places in the South. Council member Robert DiCarlo was one of three people who voted against the name changes. DiCarlo said he will immediately resign from the council after serving for 16 years. “Those responsible [for enslaving Africans] are all dead,” he said. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.