Wildermuth name change hangs in the balance

A committee will recommend within two weeks whether the Ora L. Wildermuth Intramural Center – named after a segregationist – should be renamed, University officials said Wednesday.

“It’s a very serious matter,” said Terry Clapacs, head of the All University Committee on Names and IU’s vice president and chief administrative officer.

The building’s name – after Ora Wildermuth, a founding citizen of Gary, judge and president of the IU Board of Trustees from 1938 to 1949 – came under fire after an Indiana Daily Student columnist criticized the University in April 2007 for naming the building after a segregationist. Former IDS 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.

In a letter to Biddle, Wildermuth wrote he was and will always “remain absolutely and utterly opposed to social intermingling of the colored race with the white.”

In a letter to Wells, Wildermuth wrote even more disparagingly about black students.
“So few of them succeed and the average of the race as to intelligence, economic status and industry is so far below the white average,” Wildermuth wrote, “that it seems to me futile to build up hope for a great future.”

Originally named the IU Fieldhouse, Wildermuth Intramural Center was home to the IU men’s basketball team from 1928 to 1960 and is now attached to the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation. It was renamed in Wildermuth’s honor in 1971.
Shaffer’s column urged University officials to discuss the possibility of a name change for the building.

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.

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

Clapacs said when a building is named, it’s supposed to be for forever. Clapacs said University officials did not want to rush into a name change because they think it’s a big decision.

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 and covering IU’s traditions and history, he said.

“Who knows what else will come out,” he said about other building’s names.

IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said while what Wildermuth believed and said are not acceptable in today’s society, IU’s traditions must be weighed before any change.

Clapacs also said there are a variety of opinions in the committee. He said 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.

Wildermuth was on the board of trustees when IU was slowly becoming desegregated.
IU alumnus Tom Graham wrote “Getting Open: The Unknown Story of Bill Garrett and the Integration of College Basketball” 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.

He also said as president of the Board of Trustees, Wildermuth should be held to a higher standard.

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