Indigenous students, student union push Ryerson University to change its name
TORONTO — A student-led campaign at Ryerson University is pushing for the school to change its name out of respect for residential school survivors.
But the proposal from the Ryerson Students Union and the Indigenous Students Association has prompted considerable backlash from the wider student community, who criticize it as being impractical and disrespectful in its own right.
The downtown Toronto university is named for Egerton Ryerson, a pioneer of public education in Ontario who is widely believed to have helped shape residential school policy through his ideas on education for Indigenous children.
The school has previously stated that Ryerson’s ideas did help contribute to the system that has since been described as a “cultural genocide” and acknowledged the need to commit to respectful relationships with Indigenous students.