While the name will remain, other changes will be made, the board announced. The university seeks to raise $160 million to achieve need-blind admissions. Lee Chapel, where the former president is buried, will be renamed University Chapel and altered to separate the auditorium from the crypt and a memorial sculpture of Lee. University diplomas will be changed to remove images of Lee and George Washington, the university’s other namesake. The institution will also discontinue Founders’ Day, a holiday celebrated on Lee’s birthday. It will establish an academic center for the study of Southern race relations.
“The association with our namesakes can be painful to those who continue to experience racism, especially to African Americans, and is seen by some as an impediment to our efforts to attract and support a diverse community,” the board wrote in its announcement. “For others, our name is an appropriate recognition of the specific and significant contributions each man made directly to our institution.”