Vanderbilt uses $1.2 million to strike major blow against racial violence

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We want so badly to be Duke but can't quite pull it off."

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Maybe some day we can just blow up all the historical monuments from the past like the Taliban.

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I love that we can decide which MEMORIALS we choose to allow people to remember. Confederate Memorial... nah, I think we are better off forgetting that piece of history

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I wonder if the United Daughters of the Confederacy can decline the payment and force them to keep the name. They bought the rights, how can Vandy say, "We changed our mind, here is your refund." That had to be a cluster frick of a legal battle.

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The university first attempted to rename the building Memorial Hall in 2002 in honor of the men and women who have lost their lives in this nation’s armed conflicts but the UDC pursued legal action to retain the original name.

A Tennessee Appeals court ruled in 2005 that Vanderbilt University could remove “Confederate” from the inscription only if the university returned the original donation to the UDC at its current value.

Vanderbilt University will pay the sum with gifts from anonymous donors designated to be used specifically for this purpose.

No institutional funds will be used to return the donation.

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Vanderbilt University will pay the sum with gifts from anonymous donors designated to be used specifically for this purpose.

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“Vanderbilt advanced essentially five justifications for modifying its agreement with the Tennessee U.D.C.

First, Vanderbilt claimed that none of the three contracts at issue specified precisely how the name “Confederate Memorial Hall” would be placed on the building and argued that the plaque installed by the entrance in 1989 constituted substantial compliance with any naming requirement in the three contracts.

Second, Vanderbilt asserted that because the dormitory had not been used to provide free or reduced-rent housing to women descendants of Confederate soldiers since approximately 1983, the statute of limitations and the doctrine of laches barred the Tennessee U.D.C.’s belated attempts to enforce their rights under the contracts.

Third, Vanderbilt argued that the Tennessee U.D.C. had received full consideration for its $50,000 donation because of the many women who had been allowed to live in the dormitory rent-free over the years and because the name “Confederate Memorial Hall” had remained on the building for almost seventy years.

Fourth, Vanderbilt argued that principles of academic freedom prevented the court from requiring the maintenance of the name “Confederate” on the building.

Fifth, Vanderbilt argued that maintaining the name “Confederate Memorial Hall” on the building might constitute a violation of state and federal anti-discrimination laws.”

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