Oxford college rejects call to rename Rhodes room amid donor backlash

AN OXFORD college has rejected calls to rename its Rhodes Computer Room after donors threatened to withdraw their financial support because students were “trying to erase history”.

It is understood that Sir Ivor Crewe, provost at University College, privately told the president of the Junior Common Room (JCR), which represents undergraduate students, that it was keeping the name because it did not want to be seen to be supporting the Rhodes Must Fall movement.

This followed a motion by the JCR to rename the room as “Rhodes Scholars Computing room” which came in the light of a separate, and failed, petition to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College.

Earlier this week Sir Ivor told students he was “confident” the name would not change because it was in honour of the Rhodes scholars and not of Rhodes himself.

Minutes from a JCR meeting earlier this month show some alumni from University College refused to donate during the annual fundraising telethon because of concerns over the JCR’s vote to change the room’s name. A student at the meeting was quoted as saying “lots of old members ... were concerned that the JCR was trying to erase history. Many of them didn’t donate as a result”.

A JCR source said “the question of donors [being] concerned [was] raised by a single student at the meeting based on the conversations she’d had”. It is understood that out of 900 calls made during the telethon, 10 donors said they would delay their decision to give to the college until they saw an outcome on the computer room issue. However, this information was not brought to the governing body and, therefore, was not part of the decision in keeping the name.

News of the Rhodes room’s name remaining the same follows the campaign at Oxford University to topple the statue of the colonialist politician because of his views on other races. The Daily

Telegraph revealed last week that the statue was staying following concerns donors might withdraw multi-millionpound contributions.

Campaigners had argued toppling the statue was part of a wider push to broaden the curriculum at Oxford to include more minority views.

Recently several student unions have sought to ban anything that might cause offence in order to turn campuses into “safe places”. Last year, a group of leading academics wrote in The Tele

graph calling for students to embrace opposing views at universities.

A University College spokesman said: “The Rhodes Computer Room was funded by a group of former Rhodes Scholars on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Rhodes Trust and is not named after Cecil Rhodes. The college’s governing body decided to keep the name of the Rhodes Computer Room unchanged. At no point during its comprehensive discussion was the issue of donations raised.”

‘Lots of old members ... were concerned that the JCR was trying to erase history. Many of them didn’t donate’