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A Pennsylvania liberal arts college has removed a college professor’s name from a campus building after it emerged he excavated a Native American burial site – but critics say the move is revisionist.
Swarthmore College scrubbed Spencer Trotter’s name from its Trotter Hall building after learning he dug up the site in 1899 and put remains on display on campus, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Trotter, who was part of the college’s biology department, promoted racial hierarchy in his works – which scholars have determined to be “scientific racism.”
Valerie Smith, the college’s president, revealed in December last year that Trotter Hall and Trotter Lawn would be renamed after an 18-month investigation.
The hall has been temporarily named “Old Science Hall” and a permanent name will be announced in the fall.
Smith said the name change “is not merely a matter of renaming spaces” and acknowledged it may be divisive.
“It is an acknowledgment of harm, a commitment to learn from our past, and an affirmation of our responsibility to care for the stories and legacies held on this campus,” she said.
“I recognize that this news may stir a range of difficult emotions and concerns.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in April 2022 that two university professors excavated a Lenape burial ground, but didn’t mention Trotter by name.
The site was donated to the Delaware Nation tribe for just $1 and this process was completed in March 2022. It’s the only officially-recognized Native American burial ground in Chester County.
The university uncovered that Trotter was one of the professors and Smith said in May 2023 that the reports required the university to “reflect on and confront our past.”
She said university officials were not able to identify how long the remains had been on campus – or where they were stored.
“Our work to try to answer those questions is ongoing. And none of these facts change the distressing truth that more than 120 years ago and for an unknown period thereafter, these remains were held and displayed here,” she said.
“No matter the educational intentions or that these practices may have been commonplace at the time they occurred, these remains should have been treated with dignity and respect and should never have been removed from their burial site.”
Smith created a task force made up of students and staffers, responsible for coming up with a new name – but some graduates have not been totally enthusiastic about renaming Trotter Hall.
“I also don’t see the merit in renaming Trotter Hall,” Steve Harari, who graduated Swarthmore College in 1978, told the Swarthmore Phoenix.
“Revisionist behavior like this undermines Swarthmore’s mission of intellectual honesty and curiosity.”
“We have gotten messages from people who say, ‘Why judge actions of someone 125 years ago by our current standards today?’ And that is a [fair] argument,” psychology associate professor Cat Norris, who spearheaded the task force, told the Swarthmore Phoenix.
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