DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Columbia’s library building features the names of only male authors. After three decades of trying, these students have fixed that.
In an op-ed for the Columbia Spectator, representatives of the Butler Banner Project explained that the names displayed prominently on historic campus buildings are more than just tributes to donors or revered figures.
“They are constant yet subtle reminders of the values of their respective institutions,” they write. “Every time someone walks past Butler, they see the names of eight white men and internalize that these are the writers and thinkers that Columbia deems deserving of cultural admiration.”
The new 140-foot banner emblazons the last names of Toni Morrison, Diana Chang, Zora Neale Hurston, Ntozake Shange, Maya Angelou, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gloria E Anzaldúa and A. Revathi across the face of Butler Library and directly above the original names.
Those original names being Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Cicero, and Vergil.