Ryerson students and teachers demand name change, use 'X University' placeholder

A student and faculty open letter from Ryerson University’s First Nations-led think tank, the Yellowhead Institute, states that they will no longer be using the university’s official name, and will replace it with X University instead until an official name change is adopted, CityNews reports.

Ryerson University was named after Egerton Ryerson, who is regarded as one of the key architects behind Canada’s residential schools for Indigenous children. These children were taken away from their families and educated away from white children at these schools to assimilate them into white Canadian culture.

The statue of Ryerson on the school's downtown Toronto campus was recently vandalized after the remains of 215 children were found at the site of Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia.

The open letter was published just days before Ryerson’s Standing Strong (Mash Koh Wee Kah Pooh Win) Task Force released its findings during a two-month investigation into "what the university can do to reconcile the history of Egerton Ryerson and how the university should approach commemoration.”

According to CityNews, "the group included academics, faculty and students, both past and present and was asked to conduct “broad consultations” with students, faculty, staff, alumni and others."

The open letter says that despite the university’s task force, they were focused on the wrong things. It isn’t a matter of to what degree Ryerson is responsible for harm. To the group, Ryerson’s legacy as a person cannot be reconciled.

"The focus of the task force has largely been centred on the statue and curating an academic debate on the degree of harm Ryerson is actually responsible for. In our observations it is not focused on the trauma and harm Indigenous members of this community have endured. In this sense, the university has denied Indigenous people the right to determine what reconciliation means, unless they can squeeze it into a survey," the letter states.

"For us, there is no debate about reconciling Ryerson’s legacy," it continues. "It doesn’t matter how many non-Indigenous historians send fawning letters of support for Egerton. From an Indigenous student perspective, it cannot be reconciled."

The letter continues by demanding that the university change its name, and until that demand is met, they call upon the Ryerson community to replace the university’s name with "X University" in their email signatures, CVs, and other professional communications.

"As Professor Anne Spice has recently written, 'historically, Indigenous people have signed with an 'X' under conditions that duo not fully recognize or honour Indigenous lives. It is a sign of assent under duress.'" The letter explains.