AP Photo/Steve Helber, File
4 Jun 2021
Washington and Lee University’s (W&L) Board of Trustees voted in a 22-6 decision to keep the school’s Robert E. Lee namesake, but also promised to “expand diversity and inclusion initiatives and make changes to campus buildings, practices, and governance.”
According to a Friday letter from the University’s Board of Trustees announcing their decision, “Last summer, in the midst of the nationwide protests in search for racial justice, the Board of Trustees received requests” calling for changes of the school’s name and diploma design, among other things. Despite the calls, the University “found no consensus about whether changing the name of our university is consistent with our shared values.”
The Board of Trustees at Washington and Lee University voted 22-6 on Friday to continue under its current name, which includes former President George Washington and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, will keep its name after the board of trustees of the private liberal arts college rejected an effort to reconsider paying homage to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Despite a push last year to strip the name of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee from the Virginia school, its board of trustees voted 22-6 on Friday in favor of keeping its current name.
Washington and Lee University announced that it would keep its name after months of deliberations in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests across the U.S.