Eastern’s Naming Committee recently announced they are ready to move forward on collecting data for their charge to make a recommendation to University President David Glassman to either retain or rename Douglas Hall.

This series of forums will give everyone in Eastern’s community, as well as the surrounding communities, the opportunity to give their opinion on the matter.

We at The Daily Eastern News believe that everyone should take this chance to make their voice heard and participate in the forums as well as the survey.

This debate has gone on for a decade. Every time the Naming Committee has been involved, ultimately the decision to retain the name has won out.

Eastern is now falling far behind the rest of the world by choosing to keep the name of a well-known racist who would have loved to see some of the students on this campus as slaves on one of our buildings.

Our students of color deserve better from this university than the disrespect they are receiving by the building’s name remaining the same.

Douglas did nothing to better the world, nothing to better the country and he certainly did nothing to improve the lives of students on this campus.

We at The Daily Eastern News urge the campus community to stand up and tell the university what all of us deserve.

A name that fought for the enslavement of a race, a name that held so much hate for people of color, a name that belongs in the history books and not on Eastern students’ home has no place here. Stephen Douglas has no place here and he should have never been given one.