Tangled up in the name change culture wars

Deputy dean Caroline Wiertz has minimal time for individuals who dismissed the name transform of her employer from Cass Business enterprise Faculty to Bayes as the straightforward alternative. “I say, ‘Are you outrageous? It’s so difficult.’”

It was a complicated approach to get rid of the company school’s link to Sir John Cass, an 18th-century merchant and member of the slave-investing Royal African Enterprise, and rename it immediately after Thomas Bayes, the English statistician and philosopher. The transform, which came into influence final thirty day period, angered some alumni, who launched a petition to restore the name and demanded the college repay their service fees.

The rebrand tapped into a broader cultural conversation about the way historic figures are remembered and commemorated. Just one notable case in point came in June 2020 when the statue of Edward Colston, the slave trader, was pushed into Bristol’s harbour.

This followed the murder of George Floyd in the US by a policeman two months before. The Black Lives Subject protests that followed led organisations and models to length them selves from historic associations with racism and slavery. PepsiCo dropped Aunt Jemima in favour of Pearl Milling Enterprise, and Mars rebranded Uncle Ben’s rice as Ben’s Original.

Bayes Business enterprise Faculty is not the only organisation to fall its affiliation with Cass. London Metropolitan University’s Art, Architecture and Style and design Faculty did so much too, as did a City of London most important college. The Sir John Cass Basis became The Portal Have faith in.

Elsewhere inbound links to slavery have prompted organisational reflection. Past thirty day period, Haberdashers’ Girls’ Faculty and Haberdashers’ Boys’ Faculty in Hertfordshire both taken off Aske from their names thanks to the merchant’s inbound links to the Royal African Enterprise. This summer season, Hardwicke barristers chambers dropped its affiliation with Lord Hardwicke, the 18th-century lord chancellor, who served attract up the Yorke-Talbot belief that delivered the authorized framework to legitimise slavery in Britain. It is now referred to as Gatehouse Chambers.

Amanda Illing, Gatehouse’s chief govt, claims some barristers were being of the opinion “that’s history, we have spent thirty decades setting up our brand, we do not agree with it, does that signify we require to drop our brand id. Many others stated I can not live [with] plugging the name Hardwicke now I know what [he] was. Some juniors were being saying, I’m worried of setting up up a name that no one’s heard of, I joined for the reason that men and women understood what Hardwicke was about.” 

Illing provides: “One junior colleague stated it is like dwelling in a dwelling with a Jimmy Savile [the disgraced Tv presenter, now deceased] mural on the facet [painted in the seventies] — you wouldn’t fee a new Savile mural [in 2021].”

In the latest decades, American universities’ histories have been scrutinised. In 2017, Yale resolved to transform the name of Calhoun college [named immediately after John C Calhoun, a US statesman and defender of slavery] to Grace Murray Hopper, a computer scientist. Past yr, Princeton dropped Woodrow Wilson’s name from the public policy college for the reason that, the college stated, “Wilson’s racism disqualifies him.”

For Bayes Business enterprise Faculty, the approach of switching its name was challenging and protracted. As Paolo Volpin, the school’s dean, points out: “Universities are not very quick-going beasts.” A historian scrutinised Bayes’ previous and concluded: “The only chance I can see is that there might be a reaction to naming the college immediately after a clergyman in what is an progressively secular culture.”

The company college was named immediately after Sir John Cass in 2002 immediately after it gained a £5m donation from its namesake’s foundation, now the Portal Have faith in.

While the the vast majority of personnel and pupils were being in favour of the transform of name, some alumni were being anxious, claims Wiertz. “Most of them do not live in the Uk. If you lived in the Uk at the time, you were being concerned in that conversation [and] men and women were being a lot much more engaged in the matter. But if you lived in Russia or China and are not section of this, which is not what you imagine about.”

This is disputed by Vishal Bagaria, who studied for a masters of science amongst 2013 and 2014, and is dependent in Kolkata, India. “A chunk of the university’s alumni appear from countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the erstwhile colonies of the Uk and thus very a lot a section of the stated previous. The minimum a respectable organisation can do is offer each college student, present-day and previous, with a sense of belonging by involving us in essential selections these types of as a name transform.” He feels the name transform is bad PR.

Emil Manchev, who studied for an MSc amongst 2012 and 2013, is section of an alumni group pushing to restore the previous name. “I personally will not be working with the Bayes name, exact same as hundreds of other alumni would not use it either. We strongly imagine the name of the college has for a extended time created a brand of its own and any affiliation with Sir John Cass is by no indicates defining the school’s id. We experienced prompt that CASS gets to be an acronym.”

While Gaetano Di Benedetto, a previous college student and now a senior analyst dependent in Milan, understands the college is keen to detach itself from inbound links to colonialism, he claims he will continue on to use the Cass name on his CV.

Volpin is peaceful about no matter if alumni use the previous name on their CVs, but claims he has identified that a small group of people today can have a large effects on public belief. “That’s the bigger lesson, the energy that a small dissenting [group of] men and women can have.” He claims it looks to be a widespread view that the alumni are versus the name transform, but this is not correct.

Many others have argued the name transform does not go considerably enough. The Students’ Union place out a statement saying the shift essential to be accompanied by the college addressing bias in the employing and marketing processes, growing representation of men and women of color as perfectly as overhauling the curriculum.

Wiertz agrees that “changing the name [has to be] a sign for other points that we are undertaking, in any other case it would just be virtue signalling”. The college has launched a scholarship programme for black Uk-domiciled undergraduates to begin in the following academic yr. The curriculum is at the moment underneath assessment and there will be lectures on Cass and the history of the City of London’s inbound links to slavery.

The institution’s interim name — The Business enterprise Faculty, formerly recognised as Cass — added to uncertainty. With hindsight, Volpin, claims, it could have been greater to use the previous name until they experienced a new one particular. It is difficult, even so, to untangle the effects on recruitment from the outcomes of the pandemic — undergraduate apps to the college, at 5,744, are down by just around 400 as opposed with the preceding yr.

General apps to Bayes (undergraduate, postgraduate and govt instruction) were being 17,742 for the 2019/20 academic yr, an raise of 1,491 from the yr ahead of.

Volpin is hopeful the marketing push close to the Bayes name will help to boost the image. Individuals “will, even if they are upset, appear back again to us and see alternatives to interact and see that the college will continue on to grow”.

Letters in response to this report:

​A City benefactor could have wooed Bayes alumni​ ​/ ​From Peter Hahn, Graduate, Bayes/Cass, London W9, Uk

Business enterprise college presented a mathematician’s rebrand / From Michael Hobbs, Which Days Tech, London N13, Uk

This report has been amended to insert general apps to Bayes Business enterprise Faculty for the 2019/20 academic yr