December 14, 2020 On Dec. 10, the Cornell University Board of Trustees, through its Executive Committee, accepted a recommendation made by a special task force to rename the Goldwin Smith Professorships, currently held by 14 faculty members within the College of Arts and Sciences. The Board also accepted a task force recommendation that the university explore options to educate and further raise awareness about the complex and difficult history around the 19th-century writings and stated beliefs of Goldwin Smith himself. The task force deliberations were informed by a committee that included faculty and senior administrators. It is notable that these discussions and recommended actions stemmed from an expressed desire by the current Goldwin Smith Professors to end their association with Smith through these honorary professorships. Although he was an eminent Oxford and Cornell scholar and played a critical role in the university’s early development, Smith (1823-1910) authored many bigoted essays that put forth anti-Semitic, anti-feminist, anti-suffrage and anti-coeducation views that are antithetical to the inclusive community and lived values Cornell is rightfully proud of, and continually strives for, today.