Editorial Board: Name change for Fort Hays State wouldn’t be appropriate
University should celebrate history, not try to change it
KANSAN
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007
We support the faculty and student body of Fort Hays State University in their protest against the “renaming” of their Alma Mater.
Earlier this month, The Fort Hays State University’s Committee to Review and Rethink the Structure of the University (FHSUCRRSU) presented a proposal that would in effect change the name of our neighbor to the far west to the “University of Western Kansas,” on the grounds that “Fort Hays” hasn’t been a U.S. Military fort since 1889 and no one outside the state of Kansas knows where Fort Hays is.
One group of opponents has circulated a petition, gathering the signatures of 250 students who are against renaming the college. Students and staff obviously care a great deal about the name of their school when they put forth effort to maintain the status quo.
Fie on you, FHSUCRRSU. In our opinion this trend of renaming universities smacks of stupidity.
Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time the college underwent a name change. Since its founding in 1902, the school has had numerous monikers, most of them much to long to put on T-shirts.
At first, it was the Western Branch of the Kansas Normal School of Emporia. Then it became the Fort Hays Kansas Normal School in 1914 and then Kansas State Teachers College of Hays in 1923. When the awarding of liberal arts degrees was approved in 1931, the name was changed to Fort Hays State College. Finally, it was elevated to university status in 1977, thus becoming our beloved FHSU.
A university’s name is no small matter. It is an integral part of student identity. To arbitrarily put a point of a compass in a college’s name is quite unimaginative and, in this case, it is ungracious to the history of the locale. Besides being an important setting in the film “Dances With Wolves,” Fort Hays was key in the defense of the construction of the transcontinental railway in the late 1860’s. Its name should be invoked with pride. The university’s title has a history associated with it, and the opinion of its students, faculty and staff should carry considerable weight when it comes to any name changes. It does no good to appeal to outsiders when insiders are dissatisfied. KU students would likely be equally upset if a name change were proposed here.
Nomenclature is an important part of Fort Hays State University’s history and identity. Leave it alone.
Discussion
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The fact that "Fort Hays was key in the defense of the construction of the transcontinental railway in the late 1860's" is not a reason to invoke pride in FHSU's name; it is a reason to invoke shame. The fact that the fort was an outpost instrumental in the decimation of America's indigenous populations is hardly anything that should give us a warm and fuzzy feeling. The transcontinental railroad contributed significantly to the decline of many plains tribes. The fort that protected its construction was once the stomping grounds of George Custer, one of the most brutally genocidal generals in U.S. history. I'm taken aback at the cultural insensitivity of this editorial. It's ironic that this kind of editorial is coming from a news source that is supposed to represent the University of Kansas, the supposedly more liberal and open-minded university in Kansas.
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