William Tierney in University World News: Universities need to confront their past, not omit it

This op-ed, authored by Pullias Center co-director William G. Tierney, was originally published in University World News, March 2, 2018.

As far as academic fêtes go, this one felt pretty run of the mill. It was 2014 at my institution, the University of Southern California (USC), and the event was an elaborate dinner to celebrate the unveiling of a statue – that of Judge Robert Maclay Widney, one of the institution’s founders.

As expected, President Max Nikias stood before the genial crowd to give a few remarks. He lauded the judge’s vision and dedication to education and shared an apocryphal story about how, in 1871, the judge waded into a mob in what was then downtown Los Angeles to save Chinese immigrants from deadly mobs during anti-Chinese riots.

“In that moment, my fellow Trojans, the DNA of USC as a global institution first materialised,” Nikias enthused. “On that evening, the ethos, the character, of USC began to take shape.”

The problem is, the president omitted the darker, more troubling aspects of the founder’s history.

Read the rest of this op-ed at University World News.

William G. Tierney is co-director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California.