Officials need more time for Wildermuth decision

After a year-and-a-half of discussion, the decision whether to rename the Ora. L. Wildermuth Intramural Center will take a little longer.

The Wildermuth name-change decision will not be resolved until at least Monday said Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Terry Clapacs, who is also head of the All University Committee on Names. That is, unless committee members need more time to do research or think about the issue, he said.

In an interview Oct. 8, Clapacs said the decision would come within two weeks – or by today.

The committee will decide whether to recommend the Ora L. Wildermuth Intramural Center in the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation building to be renamed. Wildermuth was a founding citizen of Gary, a judge and the president of the IU Board of Trustees from 1938 to 1949.

In an April 2007 column, former Indiana Daily Student columnist Andrew Shaffer brought to light separate letters between Wildermuth and former IU President Herman B Wells, as well as former IU comptroller Ward G. Biddle, where Wildermuth expressed strong segregationist views.

The column criticized the University for naming the building after a segregationist.
In an interview two weeks ago, Clapacs said it’s not easy to change a name.

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

There’s concern that once one building name is changed, it will create a dangerous precedent in which other buildings will come into question – politicizing IU’s traditions and history, he said.

Therefore, Clapacs said, committee members need to take time to think about the issue and do research before making such a big decision.

IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre agreed, saying while what Wildermuth believed and said are not considered acceptable in today’s society, his comments were made during a different era. IU’s traditions must be weighed before any change.

Clapacs also said there are a variety of opinions in the committee, and donor money hasn’t factored into the process.

It’s difficult to take what was said 50 years ago and judge it against today’s standards, Clapacs said.

IU alumnus Tom Graham co-wrote “Getting Open: The Unknown Story of Bill Garrett and the Integration of College Basketball.” The book was about basketball player Bill Garrett breaking the Big Ten’s tacit “gentlemen’s agreement,” which kept out black players. When he was writing the book, he uncovered Wildermuth’s letters.

Graham said many people didn’t think in an actively racist way in Indiana at the time – they were segregated out of habit.

As president of the Board of Trustees when the University was slowly becoming desegregated, Wildermuth should be held to a higher standard, Graham said.

“It is simply not true that what Wildermuth was thinking was what everyone thought,” he said.