Edited portrait of T. H. Huxley existing within the public domain with a name tag filled with question marks PJ Heusted // AS Review
By Annika Taylor
On Monday, Jan. 25 the Senators for Huxley College of the Environment, Francis Neff and Laura Wagner, invited the broader Western community to an online public forum to discuss a College of the Environment [CotE] name change.
The forum came after the AS Review published an Op-ed written by Wagner on Friday, Jan. 22 exposing Thomas Huxley and his writings as blatant examples of scientific racism. However, this was not an exposé as such. Past efforts by senators, students and faculty to change the CotE name have come and passed without success. The meeting reflected how disillusioned students are in the decision making processes at Western, but there were also plans for the future and hope that this time the effort may succeed.
“T.H. Huxley’s writings reflect blatant scientific racism,” Wagner said.
This form of racism attempts to create the scientific study of race advocating that different races are more or less related to apes and certain other animals. The first step in changing the CotE name is proving to the administration that Huxley was racist.
According to Senate Pro-tempore Sargun Handa, one of last year’s at-large senators, this was something that she struggled with when she communicated with administration over her concerns over the Huxley name. During the meeting Handa shared an excerpt from an email she received last April from an unnamed CotE administrator regarding Huxley.
“I thought you might find interesting these Wikipedia links to T.H. Huxley and a distant relative, Julian Huxley. Julian Huxley was the individual involved in eugenics, not T.H. Huxley. T.H. Huxley was a committed and outspoken abolitionist and advocate for universal racial and gender equality,” the administrator said, in the email.
Wagner and Handa thought this excerpt was both comical and ironic.
“Regardless of how clear the connection to eugenics, what he wrote pointed to a white supremacy point of view,” Wagner said. “We are students, we shouldn’t be expected to do this research. And professors are sending us Wikipedia links to defend their position.”
Handa cited push back from white administrators as the specific reason the name change effort failed the previous year. Other barriers included lack of student representation and transparency in administrative decision-making.
Wagner also dismissed the idea that Huxley was committed to racial and gender equality.
Citing How To be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, Wagner argued that being an abolitionist did not equate to anti-racism. According to the book, abolitionism is more closely equated to progressive segregationism.
Concerns about a name change include whether money would be a problem, potential backlash from CotE alumni, and a loss of recognition for the college.
Everything from the pens to the signs on campus may have to change. Alumni may lose their sense of identity as graduates of “Huxley.” The Western’s CotE is one the oldest environmental colleges in the nation and some faculty believe that “Western Washington University College of the Environment” would be less recognizable than “Huxley College of the Environment.”
According to Dr. Gene Myers there are faculty who are engaged and think that a name change is going to happen.
“Some committees may give a fit, but changes happen when students get going,” Myers said.
Myers had some insight to share regarding the choosing of the Huxley name.
Myers said the name was incidentally chosen as a personal favorite of a couple of administrators. Besides Huxley’s personal beliefs, the name of a multidisciplinary scientist doesn’t necessarily fit with a College of the Environment. Furthermore, the Huxley family didn’t give any significant donations to Western, nor is any other college or department at Western named after an individual.
Myers has the opinion that removing the Huxley name is entirely doable.
“We weren’t asking about this stuff and that’s on us, we are now,” Myers said.
Senators are expecting support from the environmental studies, environmental science, and anthropology departments.
One key item is different between this year and last. The university has decided to create a Legacy Review Task Force composed of appointed students and faculty.
This task force is responsible for reviewing the names of campus buildings, departments and colleges. Of the total seven that will be in the group only two will be students. This number was considered to be an underrepresentation of students by multiple attendees, and specifically Handa. The task force does not have jurisdiction over the renaming of the CotE, only whether or not the name will be changed.
According to Wagner it is important to recognize the harm that scientific racism did to marginalized people.
“There needs to be a large amount of input to change the name including the marginalized group that you hurt above all else,” Wagner said. The eventual goal is to rename the CotE after a BIPOC local or alum.
Attendees were committed to keeping the ball rolling.
Future monthly meetings to continue the dialogue are planned with the goal of maintaining transparency between senators and students. A recommendation to Western President Sabah Randhawa is expected by the end of the academic year. Present and past senators expressed distrust of the process, but remain hopeful.
“Just because it takes a long time doesn’t mean we’ll lose hope,” Handa said.
In the meantime members of the Western community can join the grassroots movement of referring to Huxley simply as the College of the Environment. College of the Environment Senators can be reached at as.huxley.senators@wwu.edu.