Names committee: We have a Wildermuth decision

The All University Committee on Names has reached a decision regarding the renaming of the Ora L. Wildermuth Intramural Center, but IU officials are waiting to release their recommendation to the public.

Terry Clapacs, head of the committee and vice president for administration and chief administrative officer for IU, said he talked about the committee’s recommendation with IU President Michael McRobbie. He said they will not announce the decision until undisclosed family members are notified.

He would not say what family is being contacted, but warned against jumping to conclusions.

Clapacs said the decision might be announced today.

In an interview Oct. 8 with the IDS, Clapacs said the decision would come within two weeks – or by Oct. 22. On Oct. 22, Clapacs told the Indiana Daily Student that the University would need more time.

The building, named after a president of the board of trustees who was a known segregationist, came under fire in April 2007 when IDS columnist Andrew Shaffer brought to light letters between Ora L. Wildermuth and former IU President Herman B Wells, as well as former IU comptroller Ward G. Biddle. In the letters, Wildermuth expressed strong segregationist views.

“It’s a very serious matter,” Clapacs said earlier this month.

The day the column was published, Adam Herbert, who was IU president at the time, issued a statement saying IU leaders needed to “start a dialogue” about whether to change the name.

“I am disappointed, but not surprised, that such views were promulgated by a leading Indiana citizen at that point in history,” Herbert said in the statement.

Clapacs said it’s not easy to change a building name.

He said there’s concern that once one building’s name is changed it will create a precedent where other building names will become susceptible to change – politicizing IU’s history and traditions.

“Who knows what else will come out,” he said about those for whom other buildings are named.

IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said that while Wildermuth’s beliefs are not acceptable today, IU’s tradition and history should be weighed very carefully before any change.

He also said it was difficult to take what was said about 50 years ago and judge it by today’s standards.

However, others disagree.

IU alumnus Tom Graham co-wrote the book “Getting Open: The Unknown Story of Bill Garrett and the Integration of College Basketball.” The book is about IU basketball player Bill Garrett breaking the Big Ten’s tacit “gentlemen’s agreement,” which barred black players from competing.

While researching the book, he found Wildermuth’s letters in University archives. Wildermuth was on the board of trustees while the campus was slowly becoming desegregated.

He said it was ironic the building where Garrett played is named after Wildermuth and suggested that the name of the building should be changed to honor the basketball star.

He said he believes many people didn’t have actively racist attitudes – they were segregated out of habit.

“It’s simply not true that what Wildermuth was thinking was what everyone thought,” Graham said.