On Renaming the Woodrow Wilson School: The Standards of His Time, and Ours

In a new article posted on the Washington Post, and the Economic Policy Institute about student protesters petitioning the university for a college's name change from Woodrow Wilson, Richard Rothstein notes the implications of the decision made by Princeton to keep the name the same. Wilson was a president of both Princeton University and the United States. The request, made by the the protesters, was made in part because Wilson was a known segregationist. 

"[Recently], Princeton University trustees announced they were rejecting student protester demands that “Woodrow Wilson” be removed from the names of the university’s School of Public and International Affairs and a residential undergraduate college," wrote Haas Institute Senior Fellow Richard Rothstein. "The trustees agreed that Wilson’s racial policies, both as president of the university (where he refused to admit African American students) and as president of the United States were a serious blemish on his record. They recommended greater efforts to recruit African American students, programs to better incorporate those students into university life, and 'a much more multi-faceted understanding and representation of Wilson on our campus, especially at the school and the college where his name is commemorated.'” Read Rothstein's perspective.  

Dog Whistle Politics: A Radio Conversation on #BackChannel

"Evidence shows that programs promoting better neighborhoods, schools, sufficient food supply, health care and education in the lives of poor children, have the best chance to ameliorate poverty in the long run," noted an article on the Huffington Post, which referenced new research by Hilary Hoynes, chair of the Economics Disparities research cluster. Hoynes' research regularly focuses on federal entitlement programs such as Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). 

In new research from Hoynes and her colleagues, the article noted, "Hilary Hoynes et al., focused on the effect of the food stamp program (FSP), now called SNAP, on the general well being of a sample of adults born between 1956 and 1981 and their mothers. The estimates show that FSP significantly reduced “metabolic syndrome” (conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes) and promoted good health among adults. The FSP also significantly increased economic self-sufficiency among mothers." Read the findings of Hoynes's new research.