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Princeton's Decision to Remove Woodrow Wilson's Name

Evaluating The Conversation Through Iverson's Discourses




Quick summary and linked source

The newspaper article that I found is from the New York Times. It is about the removal of Woodrow Wilson’s name from college “ a residential community of about 1,000 students that includes dormitories, dining facilities, and extracurricular programming (New York Times, 2020).” The article gives information about Wilson's racist remarks, his resegregation policies, and his encouragement of the reinstitution of segregation. The article also discusses past students attempts to get the name removed from the college and their current success with getting it removed. 

Which discourses are present in the articles you brought for us to consider?

These discourses contribute to shaping perceptions of diversity and constructing particular social identities for diverse individuals to assume.


Marketplace - Producing images of diverse individuals as objects possessing (economic) value that will contribute to the institution’s ability to maintain or gain a competitive edge and achieve prominence in the academic marketplace. Diversity (and by implication diverse individuals) is described as essential—“a key ingredient”—for achieving and maintaining a competitive edge. Diverse student as commodity.


Excellence - Characterized by a focus on quality and performance and on success and reputation. Excellence is one marker of an institution’s ability to compete, and diversity is described in the reports as inextricably linked to excellence. Diverse student as commodity.


Managerialism - Values efficiency, productivity, and progress. Characterized by an emphasis on effectiveness, accountability, monitoring costs and effects, and quality assurance, all of which enhance a university’s ability to compete in the marketplace. Emphasizes hierarchical, top-down, command-and-control management used to get things done, like communicate vision, build community, and accomplish change. Quality assurance is a core value in the discourse of managerialism. Diverse student as commodity


Democracy - Diversity action plans assure “that student voices would be heard;” that campus constituencies and interest groups should have a voice in the process;” “that all facets of diversity are equally represented;” and that the university is committed to “the ideas of a pluralistic, multiracial, open and democratic society.” Scholars attest to the need for and benefits of cross-difference dialogue, and more specifically engaging dangerous discourses. Diverse student as change agent.


There are two discourses in the article, the major being marketplace, and the second being excellence. 


Marketplace discourse sees diversity, inclusion, equity, etc. as a commodity that will help the college be more able to compete in the academic marketplace. They believe that it makes money come into the university and so they value it for what it can bring to them and not necessarily what diversity itself brings to the table. I believe that the decision to remove Woodrow Wilson’s name was based on Marketplace discourse. Why? Previous black students requested the name be changed and made complaints about the name in 2015, 2016, and 2018. Students in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs wrote a letter asking for the name to be changed once again. This reminded me of the active citizenship spoke about in our reading for this week about the undocumented students who engaged in civic engagement (Hinton, 2015). While the administration agreed, this was “a move that comes four years after it decided to keep the name over the objections of student protests (New York Times, 2020).” The administration admits that “Princeton had already planned to retire the former president’s name from Wilson” and that “rather than asking students “to identify with the name of a racist president for the next two years,” Princeton will “accelerate” the retiring of the name, Mr. Eisgruber said. This led me to believe that they were only acting so swiftly because they did want to come under fire and not be able to compete in the marketplace. 


I mean just four years earlier they had decided not to remove it. "The decision contrasted with a vote by Princeton trustees in 2016 to keep Wilson’s name (Links to an external site.) on-campus buildings and programs, despite student protests that led to a review of his legacy there." My suspensions were confirmed after the reading the president’s statement that the “board reconsidered these conclusions this month as the tragic killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Rayshard Brooks drew renewed attention to the long and damaging history of racism in America (Princeton’s Communication Department, 2020).” 


The president went on to describe that the actions of the board were extraordinary. I beg to differ and feel that it is an insult to students who have been fighting for this. I believe that the true measure of a person is how they behave when no one is looking. When no one was looking they voted no. They chose not to listen to the students. They did not choose democratic discourse. When students tried to be the change agent spoken about in Inverson they were rejected. In fact, “The students noted their demands are “nothing new,” having been raised in 2015 by students in the Black Justice League at the university (New York Times, 2020).” Now, that the world is watching they have chosen to “swiftly” remove the name. 


Excellence discourse values quality, success, and performance. One of the comments made by the president alluded to the excellence of Woodrow Wilson despite is the racist idea’s stating that many of the virtues that distinguish Princeton today—including its research excellence and its preceptorial system—were in significant part the result of Wilson’s leadership (Princeton’s Communication Department, 2020).” This reminded me of the excellence discourse which values quality, success, and performance. These discourses matter because it may help people understand the underlying motives behind why someone may be doing something. The implication of this is that even though a bunch of people may do a lot of good things their reasons for doing so may not be pure. 

Mcgvee (2014) discusses the way students responded when they talked about issues of issues related to language, literacy, ethnicity, race, culture, class, and gender. There were several response types including doing school, playing the white guilt card, asking a question to make a statement, exaggerating, expressing overconfidence, expressing a lack of knowledge, and playing politics. I see lack of knowledge reflected in the president’s statement when he states “Princeton honored Wilson not because of, but without regard to or perhaps even in ignorance of, his racism(Princeton’s Communication Department, 2020).”


References

Hinton, K. A. (2015). Undocumented citizens: The civic engagement of activist immigrants.  (Links to an external site.)Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 10(2), 152–167.


McVee, M.B. (2014). “Some are way left, like this guy, Gloria Ladson-Billings (Links to an external site.)”: Resistance,  conflict, and perspective taking in teachers’ discussions of multicultural education. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 20(4), 536-551. 


Susan V. Iverson (2008) Capitalizing on Change: The Discursive Framing ofDiversity in U.S. Land-Grant Universities, Equity & Excellence in Education, 41:2, 182-199, DOI:10.1080/10665680801972849



Queshonda

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