A residential college at Princeton will be named after a Black woman for the first time in school history
For the first time in its history, Princeton University will name a residential college after a Black woman, according to a university report.
Hobson College will be named for 1991 Princeton graduate and business Mellody Hobson, will be built on the former site of what was Wilson College. Princeton’s residential colleges provide housing and dining to students.
Princeton University’s board of trustees has voted to remove Woodrow Wilson’s name in June from its school of public and international affairs, saying the late president’s segregationist policies make him an “especially inappropriate namesake” for a public policy school.
Read: NICHOLAS JOHNSON BECOMES FIRST BLACK VALEDICTORIAN IN PRINCETON HISTORY
Student activist lobbied for the removal of the name to make the university a more inclusive place, including strengthening the pipeline to draw more underrepresented minority students.
Mellody Hobson, co-CEO of Ariel Investments and one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” in 2015.
“When I was approached last year about this opportunity, I was most compelled by the symbolism of a Black woman replacing the name of someone who would not have supported my admission three decades ago and what that would represent for future generations,” Hobson said in a video to Princeton.
“My hope is that my name will remind future generations of students — especially those who are Black and brown and the ‘firsts’ in their families — that they, too, belong. Renaming Wilson College is my very personal way of letting them know that our past does not have to be our future.”
The university said Hobson and the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation — named for Hobson and her filmmaker husband George Lucas — made the “lead gift” to establish the new building. Construction on the site is scheduled to begin in 2023 and be completed in 2026, the school said.
