The oldest bedrock in education is being chipped away at. This is exactly what is happening here, at Union College. Learning is predicated on asking questions. For one to truly be educated they must depend on utilizing their basic questioning skills, instead of nodding their head yes in a puppet-like fashion. Successful academics, athletes, businesspeople, engineers, lawyers, doctors etc. are in part accomplished due to being trained to ask questions. Without asking questions, it’s at odds with the larger purpose of learning, and also contrary to Union’s mission of developing: “every student to lead with wisdom, empathy and courage, in ways large and small, now and across multiple tomorrows.”Achieving these qualities requires students to go beyond their comfort zone and gain experiences outside of one’s personal bubble, which would be near impossible without asking pressing questions. It’s a reflection of the current reality of groupthink, where one of my history professors had to remind us of the old adage: that no questions are dumb questions. Transferring that logic to recent changes on campus, we must ask the uncomfortable questions regarding the school’s nickname change.
Is the name change solely reflective of virtue signaling? The alleged problem with the nickname “Dutchman” and “Dutchwomen” is it consistent with a binary notion and is in reference to Dutch settlers, who stole the Native Americans land. Although our college administration is too often fixated with the past, they seem to be ignoring present day inequities. It must be considered that only 3 percent of the student body are multi racial… And the Union College Diversity report combined American Indians in this category, “due to small numbers”. For a school that expresses its culpability for Dutch Settlement and the entails on the Native American people, it is ironic that our school has conducted little effort to outreach to the Native American community. Specifically, the college has not offered its history course on Native Americans for years (HST-211 American Indian History.) However, there is an immediate rush to change the name.
The other concern specifically with the name being binary, is the lack of student involvement. Non-Binary students’ views were spoken by the administration, rather than being articulated from a student and non-binary individuals perspective. No survey was ever circulated calculating the Non-Binary students who were supposably offended and demanded a change to our nickname.
The administration is adamant on exposing the harm that settlers caused to indigenous tribes. While we must not deny that fact, they too must not deny our school’s rich traditions and the impressive and positive history of the Dutch people; not only teaching us their problematic history. While a bulk of their history has been tangled with colonialist practices, their legacy remains multi-faceted. The Dutch founded the first modern day stock market, and through its business ventures birthed shareholder activism. Today, the Netherlands, the native country of the Dutch, is consistently ranked one of the most progressive countries. According to the Social Progress Index in 2022, the Netherlands ranked the 7th most progressive country in the world. However our administration commands us to diss the Dutch, by implying that we must abstain from celebrating their remarkable turnaround.
Although it may seem uncomfortable to ask questions, if we don’t ask questions we are not truly learning. As students and learners, it is our duty to incorporate questioning into our playbook of student involvement to ensure our voices are heard, and we preserve our nickname. And so too, it is the responsibility of President Harris and the administration to supply answers.