The head of one of Yale University’s residential colleges said this week that he was misinterpreted when he announced that portraits of his white male predecessors would be taken down.
In a Nov. 1 email to students, Pierson College head Stephen Davis wrote that the portraits, which were initially removed to make space for the college’s annual Halloween dance, would not immediately be put back up as customary.
“In the context of campus-wide conversations about diversity and inclusion in public art and representation,” Davis wrote, “… we’ve decided to leave the walls empty for the time being, in the hope that the blank walls will begin to prompt conversation on what it means to create common spaces where everyone has a sense of belonging and ownership.”
Davis’ email added that the fellows’ portraits would be relocated to the college’s Fellows Lounge and noted that administrators would be “working to develop plaques/labels for them … to mark their historical context and significance.”
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