According to the Harvard Crimson, there are 12 undergraduate residences (we dare not call them dorms) on the Cambridge campus, each overseen by a faculty member, who has long been called the House master. Recently, the masters of the 12 have unanimously agreed to change their title to a new title soon to be announced. The concern here is that the term 'master' has a subtle connection to the era of slavery.
Ronald Sullivan, master of Winthrop House:
"we cannot ignore the fact that the term master has a particular salience in our culture given the very real brutal history of slavery."
Harvard University is brain-trust central and is chock full of smart people. So when it decides to make a change to the school's administrative process, the rest of us tend to pay attention. And while the era of human slavery was clearly a dark chapter of our history, this one seems a stretch.
Admittedly, we don't know what goes on inside the Harvard Houses, but the title, master, does have an authoritative tone. At he same time, the word has a much broader meaning, especially within academia. Many schools have a head masters rather than principals. It seems clear that this means head teacher rather than implied evil powers, especially given the strength of the teacher unions What of master degrees? Will MBA's become *BA's? And as the trends of Academia seep out to the great unwashed, what cultural icons could find themselves in hot water? Surely not the Masters Golf Tournament. Be still the hearts of Augusta.
The problems associated with race relations in our society are, unfortunately, only too real and troubling. Is this decision of the Harvard House masters part of the solution or just PC run amok?
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