Eisgruber: We’ve changed the way we refer to Woodrow Wilson, so everything’s fine
‘Now I try to be careful when I talk about him’
Everything’s fine after the Woodrow Wilson fiasco, says President Eisgruber, because we’ve changed the way we talk about him.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance at Davos, Eisgruber explained that a major change following last year’s Wilson debacle is how he tries “to be careful” in how he speaks about his achievements.
No doubt this will be reassuring news to the protestors of Wilson – that famous segregationist – now that Eisgruber has changed his adjectives a little.
But that’s not all! “We’ve changed the medallion in the center courtyard of our college campus so that it now references both Woodrow Wilson and the quotation he had, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor.” All sorted.
Read Eisgruber’s response below in full, when asked about the fallout of the Wilson protests (watch it here):
“It was a very sensitive issue on the campus. And it had a tumultuous start. When the students occupied my office and said some pretty incendiary things, I was very proud that we were able to put a trustee committee together that then sponsored a community-wide conversation, not just on the campus but with our alumni. And we reached the judgement that we should keep Wilson’s name where it was on the campus, including on our school of public and international affairs and on a residential college. But we had to be more honest in the way we that we talk about him. So I’ve taken that to heart. When I became president, there were times when I would give speeches, and I would just treat Woodrow Wilson reverentially. And now I try to be careful, to make sure I talk about what he did that was a towering achievement, and also the vices that we regret. We’ve changed the medallion in the center courtyard of our college campus so that it now references both Woodrow Wilson and the quotation he had, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor who’s another one of our graduates, and a proposed amendment to that quotation that she had offered a few years earlier.”