The University of Minnesota is considering changing the name of Nicholson Hall after some faculty raised concerns that Edward Nicholson’s actions stoked antisemitism and political repression when he served as dean decades ago.
“Edward Nicholson’s performance as the Dean of Student Affairs was distressingly interwoven during his tenure in the web of antisemitism and anti-democratic political repression in Minnesota and nationally,” four current and former directors of the U’s Center for Jewish Studies wrote in a 48-page paper requesting the name change. “He brings no honor to the University of Minnesota.”
The U’s Board of Regents has updated its policies in recent years to allow buildings to be renamed if the name is inconsistent with the U’s mission, jeopardizes its integrity, or “presents risk or harm to the reputation of the University.” Those policies grew out of a 2019 controversy, when regents faced an outcry from people who wanted them to rename four buildings — including Nicholson Hall — because their namesakes had been accused of backing segregation or engaging in other racist practices.
U leaders said this is the first request they’ve received under the new policy provision. They announced in an email to students and employees last week that they would be accepting public comments until 5 p.m. March 18. A final decision on the name could come later this year.
Nicholson Hall is on the corner of Pillsbury Drive and Pleasant Street and, according to Minneapolis Star-Journal archives, this is at least the fourth name it’s had. Regents decided in 1945 to name the building, then often referred to as “the Old Union,” after Nicholson, who began working at the U as a chemistry instructor in 1895 and went on to serve as its first dean of student affairs from 1917 until his retirement in 1941. He died in 1949.
The building houses, among other things, the Center for Jewish Studies. Many of the people requesting the name change have taught classes there or had offices there.
“I can only speak for myself, but the more we learned about how the dean of students behaved, the more disturbed we were about why he was being honored by the University of Minnesota,” said Riv-Ellen Prell, a professor emerita of American Studies who is working on the renaming effort.
Prell said she first learned about Nicholson when she read an article that mentioned he had worked with Ray Chase, a conservative politician accused of masterminding antisemitic tactics used in political races in the late 1930s.
