TH Huxley and the removal of his name from
the College of the Environment.
As you know, up until this past year, WWU’s “College of
the Environment” had been known as “Huxley College of the Environment” since it
was founded in 1969. Last year, the WWU Board of Trustees made the decision to
drop the Huxley name.
For those who are interested in learning more about
this controversy, here are some relevant links:
Legacy
Review Committee report and responses
And, Imperial College in England, where TH Huxley was
a faculty member, in response to the issues raised at WWU, considered removing
Huxley’s name as well but decided against doing so, citing fabrication and
disinformation that originated at WWU:
One article written just
before the Imperial College decision
And
one written just after the Imperial College decision
Finally, here is one detailed article about the
Jamaica Committee which, as discussed in the Panda’s Thumb link above was a 19th
century Black Lives Matter event in which TH Huxley participated:
“The
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us that the arc of the moral universe bends
toward justice. Each generation of social reformers travels a different segment
of that arc, navigating by a moral constellation unique to their time and place
in history. Huxley wasn’t perfect, but he brought himself and the rest of
society to a more just place on that arc. We should celebrate his journey for
making ours possible.” ….written by Dr. Steven Hollenhorst, former Dean here