SUNY Purchase changes dorm name 'Big Haus' since students found it offensive

2022-07-27 08:35:44 By : Ms. Crystal Wang

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

They’re bringing down the Haus.

SUNY Purchase changed the name of one of its dorms this week after triggered students said it reminded them of prison.

The Westchester County college officially dropped the name Big Haus from a freshman dorm and rebranded it with the “more inclusive” student-suggested name Central in a vote of the College Council on Monday.

“In the past year or so there were a few campus-wide conversations about changing the name to something without the historic implications or references,” college spokesperson Betsy Aldredge told The Post.

The administration chose Central out of several student suggestions because of its location on campus and its “deeper meaning,” President Milagros Peña told News 12 Westchester.

The renaming is part of the college’s effort to “acknowledge and share the campus’s history in Westchester County, which includes the history of both the indigenous population of the region and those who were enslaved on campus nearby.”

Big Haus had been the name of the dorm since 1989 when students at the time voted to name that and several other buildings which were then known only as AB, CD, ER, GHJ and KMPS, according to the college. The college has found no record why that name was chosen at the time, the spokesperson told The Post.

Incoming students will now be educated on the “history” of the building, according to News 12.