A bone-headed solution

Every four or five years IU does something really bone-headed, the latest example being the proposed so-called “renaming” of part of the HPER building. Not content to have a problem on its hands, the administration has compounded it by affixing the good name of an honorable man forever to that of a self-avowed racist.

Now Bill Garrett’s name must always be associated with that of Ora L. Wildermuth, who probably wouldn’t have spoken to him in real life, he being of the mind that blacks (Garrett) were inferior as a race and could never therefore be his equal.  

But now their names will be in tandem on the signs as if they were somehow alike. What’s next, putting William Lowe Bryan and Heinrich Himmler on the same building?

But Terry Clapacs assures us that this could be educational. An education in what? Bureaucratic cowardice? Definitely.  

Morally, the University is on slippery ground here and that should be obvious to the slowest dimwit. Andrew Shaffer was right the first time – the Wildermuth name needs to be removed once and for all – not dressed up with the name of an honorable man who cannot object. As an alumnus, I truly regret the low level of testosterone inside Bryan Hall these days.

Russ Bridenbaugh
IU alumnus