Christian college may remove former president’s name from library after BIPOC complaints

Wheaton College, a Christian institution in Illinois, is conducting a review of its “history regarding race,” including a petition from a “collective of BIPOC students and alumni” to rename its library.

BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and the collective argues in its petition that James Oliver Buswell, president of Wheaton from 1926 to 1940, left a “racist legacy” at the evangelical school.

Wheaton College created a task force in October 2021 to “conduct a historical review of race,” the Wheaton Record reported. An email from current President Philip Ryken stated the goal of the taskforce is to “understand the impact of past events on present realities, particularly the experience of ethnic minorities.”