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Yale Students Ask University To Abolish Term “Master”

(AP Photo/Bob Child)

This week Princeton University abolished the title of Master for the leaders of its own residential colleges, saying the title was "anachronistic" and "historically vexed." Instead, Princeton will call its residence leaders "heads of the college." Students at Yale University in Connecticut are asking Yale to follow Princeton’s lead.

The term Master was historically used in old English universities to refer to the head of a college, and it still is today at schools like Oxford and Cambridge. But for some black students on campus at Yale, the word brings up memories of a much darker moment in American history: the country's legacy of slavery. 

Brea Baker, a political science student and a senior at Yale, says that legacy is "not that long ago."

"A lot of our grandparents remember stories from their parents or their grandparents of actually…having a master above you who has total control over your life," she says. "I don't think that's something Yale wants to promote."

Baker says the College’s intent behind using the word Master to describe residence leaders may be benign, but the effect of the word isn’t.

"The big thing here is intent versus what actually happens," she said. "So whether you decided to name them Master for slave reasons or not doesn’t change that students of color feel uncomfortable having to go into the master’s house, and refer to someone as 'Master So-and-so.'"

This isn't the first time that Yale has discussed its controversial name for the heads of its residential colleges. In August, the head of Pierson College, Dr. Stephen Davis, asked his students to refrain from using the term "Master" to refer to him. 

“I think there should be no context in our society or in our university in which an African-American student, professor or staff member — or any person, for that matter — should be asked to call anyone ‘Master,’” Davis wrote, according to the Yale Daily News. “And there should be no context where male-gendered titles should be normalized as markers of authority.”

Earlier this month, Baker and other student activists officially asked Yale President Peter Salovey to change the term. Their request was part of a longer list of demands from students, to make Yale more inclusive for people of color. Salovey responded to some of the other demands on Tuesday with a few promises, but he did not respond to the particular demand that the title of "Master" be abolished. 

A spokesman for Yale University said the College Masters have been discussing whether to abolish the title.

Kathie is a former editor at WSHU.
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