On Tuesday, Stanford Residential Education (ResEd) released an online form for submitting input on the renaming of the Serra dorm in Stern Hall. The online submission form is open to Stanford students, alumni, faculty, staff and administrators until Nov. 5.
Stanford will rename the Serra freshman dorm and Serra House, two campus buildings honoring California mission system founder Father Junipero Serra, who has drawn sharp criticism for his mistreatment of Native Americans.
Stanford will also seek to rename Serra Mall, pending the approval of Santa Clara County and the U.S. Postal Service. This would change the University’s official address, which is currently 450 Serra Mall. If approved, Serra Mall will become Jane Stanford Way in honor of the University’s co-founder.
At next Wednesday’s Palo Alto Unified School District Board meeting, two names will be recommended to replace the names of Jordan Middle School and Terman Middle School, respectively. Among the nine finalists, which include seven deceased individuals and two geographic landmarks, are William Hewlett ’39, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, and Ellen Fletcher, former Palo Alto city councilwoman.
The land that Stanford is built on is Muwekma Ohlone land. But how many of my classmates know that? How many times have I heard Stanford students say, “You’re the first native person I’ve ever met!” or the dreadful, “Native Americans still exist?” Freshman year was the hardest year of my life because of how…
