WKU may rename colleges currently named after men who owned slaves

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Buildings and monuments across the nation are changing and updating their names to remove names of confederate fighters or supporters.

Western Kentucky University may be joining the movement

Western Kentucky University is a school made up of five colleges.

Two of which are under scrutiny because of who they were named after.

Potter College of Arts and Letters and Ogden College of Science and Engineering, both named after men with troublesome backgrounds.

One of those men was Robert Ogden according to David Lee, the university historian at WKU.

“He had nearly 40 slaves at one point in his life and when he died, he left in his will money for the creation of Ogden College,” said Lee.

The other was Pleasant J. Potter.

“He had also owned slaves, but a lot of his wealth had come after the civil war from his merchant and his banking enterprises,” said Lee.

President Timothy Caboni announced Monday, he is in the process of putting together a committee to look at renaming the colleges.

According to Bob Skipper, WKU’s director of media relations, these colleges were originally named after people who made significant charitable contributions to the school in the past.

“WKU has a strong commitment that we reaffirmed this summer to diversity, equity and inclusion. And we want to make sure that the people whose names are on our buildings and represent our colleges uphold those ideals as well. We want to be a place that is welcoming to everyone,” said Skipper.

Some local students expressed their support of Caboni’s announcement.

“I really want to go to a university that aligns with my morals and my beliefs and so that makes me excited to think that they are considering changing that because I fully support that and I believe that it would be a good decision for them,” said Lauren Heelan, a WKU student.

“I think it’s a great idea. I’m all for being inclusive of every single background that comes to our school. I feel that if it could make students that could possibly be offended by this, well rightfully so offended by this, I think that we should take the steps toward that so that everyone feels comfortable coming here,” said Camille Holland, a WKU student.

A timeline of when the names might change has not been set as the committee has not yet been selected.

It is also important to note, Potter Hall is named after J. Whit Potter who lived after the civil war and did not own slaves.