UC Berkeley considers renaming library, but seems set to continue using school name of controversial slaveholder

The University of California, Berkeley, has commissioned a committee to rename a library named after a controversial figure. The school itself, however, seems set on keeping the name of controversial slave holder George Berkeley. 

The Bancroft Library Reckoning Committee’s mission is to “consider and acknowledge the history of the name of The Bancroft Library, and to make recommendations regarding possible actions.” The committee is holding four sessions from Sept. 12-Sept. 27, after which it will “make its recommendations . . . to the university librarian, the vice chancellor for equity and inclusion, and the Chancellor.”

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UC Berkeley’s decision to found the committee came after a June 2023 proposal by Berkeley student Sean Peterson and the activist organization RECLAIM to “unname” Bancroft Library, which is named after Hubert Howe Bancroft, a historian who sold his significant book collection to the University of California. According to UC Berkeley, the library is “one of the largest and most heavily used libraries of manuscripts, rare books, and unique materials in the United States.”

The proposal states that Bancroft himself “held abhorrent Anglocentric and white-supremacist views that run counter to the University of California’s most deeply held principles.”

Despite its desire to rename the library, UC Berkeley leaders have refused to rename the school itself, which is named after a controversial 18th century slaveholder named George Berkeley. 

A school spokesperson told the San Francisco Chronicle in May, 2023: “We acknowledge that the university’s founders chose to name their new town and campus after an individual whose views warrant no honor or commemoration. At the same time, we are cognizant of the fact that over the course of the ensuing 155 years since the university’s founding, ‘Berkeley’ has come to embody and represent very different values and perspectives.”

As part of its project, the Bancroft renaming committee offered several “scholarly articles” attacking Bancroft. 

The renaming committee is made up of several university officials, students, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion officials.  

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The “Public Feedback” forum provided on UC Berkeley’s website shows several comments opposed to the “unnaming.” One Sept. 12 comment said that “The committee should do nothing.” A Sept. 10 member of the community stated that “[w]hile we will all rise to repudiate his views on race, we ought not repudiate the totality of the man and his significance to our library and public education.”

Another comment stated: “History IS Tragedy. To try and delete it is imprisoning and hypocritical and, in my opinion, very dangerous. Don’t dishonor UC Berkeley and bend to a few radicals…AGAIN.”

Campus Reform has reached out to UC Berkeley for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.