Stanford to remove Catholic saint’s name from university buildings over treatment of Native Americans

Stanford University said it is removing the name of a Catholic saint from some of its buildings, citing the saint’s treatment of Native Americans.

The university announced last week that Father Junipero Serra’s name will be removed from two campus buildings and a pedestrian mall.

Serra was the founder of the California mission system but had no role in the university’s founding. He died in 1784, about a century before the school was founded.

{mosads}A committee of Stanford faculty, students, staff and alumni made its recommendations after reviewing Serra’s role in state history.

“Serra’s establishment of the mission system is a central part of California history, and his life’s work led to his canonization by the Roman Catholic Church in 2015,” the university’s statement reads. “At the same time, the historical record confirms that the mission system inflicted great harm and violence on Native Americans.”

The university plans to rename Serra Mall after Jane Stanford, a co-founder of the university, in addition to changing the name of one academic building and one dorm.

The committee made its recommendations based on the mission system’s violence against and persecution of Native American tribes.

“The mission system subjected Native Americans to great violence and, together with other colonial activities, had devastating effects on California’s Native American tribes and communities,” the committee said. “It contributed to the destruction of the cultural, economic and religious practices of indigenous communities and left many tribal communities decimated, scattered, landless and vulnerable to subsequent colonization.”

Jeff Raikes, chair of the Stanford Board of Trustees, said the committee recommended keeping Serra’s name on some “less salient” features on campus to recognize the mission system’s influence on Stanford’s founding and design.

“Revisiting how we think about historical figures is a challenging undertaking that requires care and humility,” Raikes said in the university press release. “With the passage of time, we gain new understanding of historical events, the people who shaped them and the effects of those events on others. At the same time, we know that all individuals’ lives are imperfect and that any exercise to evaluate a historical figure by present-day standards has limitations.”

The university’s move comes amid nationwide discussions about Confederate monuments and other landmarks tied to slavery or mistreatment of Native Americans throughout U.S. history.