The College Fix

Myles Standish, Chaucer, historic paintings, and more were targets of cancel culture this year

What do Woodrow Wilson, Myles Standish, and Christopher Columbus all have in common?

All three were the targets of campus cancel culture this year. They represent a trend over the past decade in higher education of removing or slapping “trigger warnings” on historical figures and items, supposedly because young adults cannot handle the complex, controversial, and sometimes ugly parts of humanity’s past.

This year, it also took a different form in the way of universities hiring staff to give Native American artifacts in their collections back to the tribes.

Here are 14 examples of historical cancelations in 2024:

1. Johns Hopkins U. to remove President Woodrow Wilson’s name
The university has a special Name Review Board that considers whether to strip historical figures’ names from buildings and programs. In Wilson’s case, the board decided an undergraduate research fellowship should no longer bear the president’s name due to his “racist views.”

2. Boston University cancels Pilgrim leader
Myles Standish, the first military leader of Plymouth Colony, is no longer worthy of recognition on a university dormitory. The reason: his “terrible acts against the native people.”

3. Universities hire staff to return Native American artifacts
The California State University and University of California systems, as well as Southern Illinois University, all created new staff positions this year to “repatriate” artifacts from their museums and collections.

The institutions pointed to state and federal regulations as a reason for the change, but one anthropologist says it will ultimately “ruin archaeology.”

4. Columbus Day gets canceled – again and again
The Italian explorer has been the target of cancel culture for years, and 2024 was no exception. The Fix found a number of universities hosted activities for Indigenous People’s Day but did not recognize Columbus Day, a federal holiday, at all.

5. Michigan State may remove lawmaker’s name from building
The late U.S. Sen. Justin Morrill is responsible for the land-grant acts that helped establish public universities like Michigan State. However, his supposedly “harmful” actions toward Native Americans have prompted calls for his name to be removed from MSU’s Agricultural Hall.

6. Warning about ‘Christian’ themes added to ‘Canterbury Tales’
Across the pond, Nottingham University put a “content notice” on Geoffrey Chaucer’s most famous work to alert readers about “expressions of Christian faith.”

7. Harvard may remove governor’s name due to slavery connections
The dormitory is named after Massachusetts Bay Colony Gov. John Winthrop and his great-great grandson Professor John Winthrop, a pioneer in mathematics and astronomy in early America. But because both owned slaves, the Winthrop name has become a target for cancelation by several student groups.

8. University of Alberta historic mural may be removed
The “Alberta History” mural at the Canadian university depicts a group of Native Americans in loincloths in apparent prayer around a clergyman holding up a cross and a flag. Some say the imagery is causing “harm” and should be removed.

9. ‘Anglo-Saxon’ is out at British university
The University of Nottingham in England recently deleted the term Anglo-Saxon from several programs as part of a larger effort to “decolonise the curriculum.”

10. Merchant donor’s name replaced with enslaved woman’s on Harvard street
According to The Crimson, Bussey Street was named after “a merchant who donated the land for Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum and who amassed his fortune trading goods produced by enslaved individuals.” The new name is Flora Way, named after a female slave who worked on a farm near the Arboretum.

11. UVA board strips president’s name off library
The change drew backlash from a black University of Virginia trustee who ripped into cancel culture during a debate about the name removal. Despite the criticism, the trustees still voted to remove former university president Edwin Alderman’s name from Alderman Library due to his views on race and eugenics.

12. Med school removes portraits of ‘old, white’ former deans in name of ‘diversity’
Dalhousie University Medical School in Canada took down portraits of its former “old” and “white” deans because they are “no longer representative of the school’s student body.”

13. College removes painting of duke with black servants
The reason for the painting’s removal from Oriel College at Oxford University isn’t certain. Some say college leaders feared the 18th century portrait would “offend students,” but the institution insists it moved the painting as part of a renovation project, according to the student newspaper Cherwell.

14. UC Berkeley considers renaming library
The California university formed a committee to consider changing the name of The Bancroft Library. Critics say historian Hubert Howe Bancroft wrote “disturbing” and “hateful” work that “is anti-Black, anti-Asian, anti-Indigenous and anti-immigrant,” The Daily Californian reports.

MORE: Year in Review: 120 campus cancel culture incidents in 2024

IMAGE: The Story of Liberty/YouTube

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