Rider University is removing the name of a
Revolutionary War veteran and New Jersey statesman from an 18th
century house on campus named after Benjamin Van Cleve.
Van Cleve was a slaveholder and a vocal supporter of
slavery. The house that
had his name was part of the property Rider purchased in 1956 as it
prepared to move its campus from Trenton to Lawrenceville.
The house has been used in various ways over the
years, first as a student residence, then as the Admissions building and, since
1993, as the location for Rider's Office of Alumni Relations.
The building is being renamed the "Alumni
House."
It's a recommendation by the university's
task force which investigated the university's historical relationship
with slavery, and how to recognize and educate around this history.