The first day of October – Diversity Day – marked the launch of a new reflection tour about campus names, with several guided tours inviting visitors to consider the names of buildings and streets. And to sharpen their thinking, they are asked to put forward a new name for Erasmus Square. Those wishing to contribute their thoughts are welcome to attend one of Radboud Reflects' ‘dialogue sessions’ on names.
During the guided tour, Professor Johan Oosterman points to a striking Nijmegen trait when it comes to choosing names: while other universities prefer technical names – like Eindhoven University of Technology's ‘Flux’ and ‘Helix’ – or a mix of technical terms and people, Nijmegen opts for personal names for almost all its important streets and buildings. At the risk of having the names in question be discredited, like that of the namesake of the Beel Room in Huize Heyendael.
Tainted reputation
Beel was a law faculty alumnus and prime minister, which was the reason for naming a room after him. As prime minister and some time later High Commissioner of the Dutch East Indies, he was responsible for “police actions” that involved excessive violence. The Beel Room at Huize Heyendael was recently renamed The Salon, the room's original name. “Linnaeus was also not without blemish”, as visitors heard during the tour. The 18th-century namesake of the science building was allegedly guilty of racism in his biological taxonomy.
The personification of buildings is a relatively modern trend in Nijmegen, and still not ubiquitous – see the Lecture Hall complex, the Aula, or the Research Tower of Radboud University medical center. But each new faculty building is given a name, a phenomenon that is discussed at length during the tour. Why lean mainly on scholars from far away, the visitors ask. Why do we forget our ‘own’ scholars (like founding professors Schrijnen or Post), and instead honour Comenius, Grotius, Erasmus, Spinoza, and Maria Montessori?