Renaming of Berkeley not on UC agenda

As Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, takes steps to expunge the name “Berkeley” from its central library, officials at UC Berkeley are confronting the painful legacy behind the moniker — but say they have no plans to drop it.

“We acknowledge that the university’s founders chose to name their new town and campus after an individual whose views warrant no honor or commemoration,” university spokesperson Dan Mogulof said in a statement, referring to George Berkeley’s history as a slaveholder with an ill-fated plan to force Native American children into Christianity.

“At the same time, we are cognizant of the fact that over the course of the ensuing 155 years since the university’s founding, ‘Berkeley’ has come to embody and represent very different values and perspectives,” he continued, citing diversity and social equity as chief among those values. Mogulof said he is not aware “of any formal effort or request to change the university’s name.”

Renaming or “denaming” has become a way for cities and institutions to denounce or reckon with contentious figures of the past. San Francisco has purged problematic names from streets and a waterfront plaza, while what was previously known as UC Hastings discarded the name of its founder, Serranus Hastings, after historians linked him to massacres of Native American people in Mendocino County.

But most of these decisions met resistance and had myriad associated costs, from replacing building signs to creating new logos and letterhead. Hastings Chancellor David Faigman allowed a six-month transition for the college to adopt its new name, UC College of the Law San Francisco — a process that required “an immense amount of preparatory work,” Faigman said, including new state legislation.

The law school also faced a $1.7 billion lawsuit from descendants of Hastings, which stalled in December after a San Francisco Superior Court judge denied the plaintiffs’ motion to halt the name change. Attorneys representing the college filed a motion to dismiss the suit, which is now being challenged at the California Court of Appeal.

For Berkeley, a top-tier public university that has spent more than a century and a half cementing the reputation of its brand, the risks appear even greater. UC Berkeley consistently ranks among the best public and private universities, known globally for its list of Nobel laureates and inventions, as well as its tradition of political activism.

To some branding experts, the hard costs of a name change — websites, stationery, books, libraries, tests, degrees — would pale in comparison to the incalculable cost of conveying a new brand identity to people across the world, for whom “Berkeley” is synonymous with academics.

“When you analyze a name change, you have to understand the equity you have in the existing name, the cost of changing the name, and the value of changing the name — you have to balance all those things,” said David Aaker, a professor emeritus at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business who specializes in marketing and brand strategy. “Right now,” he continued, “if you poll people in the U.S., Berkeley is among the top 10. It has an enormous reputation.”

Aaker has criticized other famous rechristenings, such as Facebook’s conversion to Meta, which he saw as a squandered opportunity to tell a new story about the company. He balked at Trinity College’s decision to strip “Berkeley” from its library, saying it seemed like an arbitrary moral judgment.

The quandary facing UC Berkeley extends to the city at large, where discussions of a name change are already percolating, but not gaining much traction.

In an opinion piece published last year in Berkeleyside, a longtime Berkeley resident advocated for renaming the city: “It’s time for us to move on from the past. The city of Berkeley, our city, is named after a slave owner, racist, and colonialist.”

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín declined to comment on whether the city would consider a new name, likely necessitating a charter amendment that would go before voters. Renaming a city might also require state legislation, as the state incorporated Berkeley.

Reach Rachel Swan: rswan@sfchronicle.com