The University has announced three possible replacement names for the Serra dorm in Stern Hall: Maya Angelou, Pat Parker and Sally Ride ’78, according to an email sent on Tuesday by Assistant Dean of Residential Education (ResEd) Diontrey Thomas.
The three finalist names received the most votes out of a group of 11 names that were recently presented and voted on by Serra residents. It remains unclear which names received the most votes and how many votes were submitted for each name.
All three proposed names are of deceased American women.
Angelou was an artist and civil rights activist who produced plays, movies and television programs across a span of more than 50 years, before her death in 2014. Parker was a lesbian poet and activist who served as executive director of the Oakland Feminist Women’s Health Center from 1978 to 1988. She died shortly afterward, in 1989. Ride was an astronaut who became the first woman in space in 1983. She died in 2012.
The email — sent to student leaders, including members of the Native American Cultural Center, Muwekma, El Centro student staff and the Catholic Community at Stanford — asks for feedback on the proposed names.
The Daily has reached out to the SAIO co-chairs for comment.
In a separate email to The Daily, Student Affairs spokesperson Pat Lopes Harris wrote that ResEd plans to submit information on the names to Vice Provost of Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole by the end of the month, following any feedback received from students. Brubaker-Cole will then share the information with University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell.
“ResEd is engaged in an open and collaborative process,” wrote Harris, who also shared the original announcement email with The Daily.
The University decision to rename the Serra dorm, among other Serra-named landmarks, was released in September after the committee, charged with applying a set of previously developed renaming principles to all features named Serra on campus, concluded development of its recommendations to the Board of Trustees. In accordance with these recommendations, the Trustees decided to rename the dorm, along with the Serra House — the academic building within the Clayman Institute — and pursue the renaming of Serra Mall as Jane Stanford Way.
This report will be updated as more details and perspectives come to light.
Contact Holden Foreman at hs4man21 ‘at’ stanford.edu and Karen Kurosawa at karen16 ‘at’ stanford.edu.