(BLOOMINGTON) — The name of a former Indiana University president is being stripped from locations around the Bloomington campus over his support for eugenics.
The university’s Board of Trustees voted 8-1 Friday to remove David Starr Jordan’s name from a classroom building, a parking garage and a campus creek, a step recommended by school President Michael McRobbie.
Jordan was an IU zoology professor before serving as IU’s president from 1885 to 1891.
Eugenics is the practice of controlled selective breeding of humans often carried out through forced sterilization, and Jordan wrote about his belief that humanity would thrive only if the fittest were promoted.
