The University of Bristol has decided against retitling its buildings that are named after people with links to the transatlantic slave trade, but has pledged £10m to help address racial inequalities over the next decade.
At the end of a year-long consultation, which centred on whether seven university buildings should be renamed, the university acknowledged not everyone would be pleased with the decision to retain the controversial associations.
It vowed to tell the university’s history “in an honest, open and transparent way” and promised “substantive action” to address broader issues of systemic racism and inequality in Bristol and beyond.
The university will, however, remove the dolphin insignia of the slave trader Edward Colston from the University of Bristol logo, which was designed in 2003. Colston’s statue in the city was toppled during a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020.
The university said it had received no funding from Colston, who died nearly 200 years before its foundation. Two other families with links to slavery – the Wills and Fry families – did provide substantial funding in the early 20th century that helped establish the university.
According to the university, the families did not own or traffic in enslaved people, but the products their predecessors dealt in, including tobacco, sugar and cocoa, were undoubtedly connected to enslaved labour. The Wills Memorial Building, which the university describes as “a true Bristol icon”, has been the focus of student protest in recent years.
The university said the £10m would be used to fund a “reparative futures” programme to address racial injustice and inequalities within the university and local communities, and build on earlier initiatives such as the Black Bristol Scholarships Programme. The university also promised to create a community fund for proposals from local groups to work on initiatives to tackle educational, health and economic inequalities.
The vice-chancellor and president, Prof Evelyn Welch, said the consultation, which attracted 4,000 contributions from students, staff and members of the local community, had exposed “deep hurt and frustration” with the university’s slow progress and commitment to racial equity.
“I am deeply sorry for these damaging and hurtful experiences which continue to the present day, and I apologise to everyone impacted by those injustices. We aspire to be an inclusive institution and we must do better,” said Welch.
“I know that some of these decisions will not please everybody – but we have listened carefully. We must tell our history in an honest, open and transparent way, while at the same time putting our full weight behind substantive action to address the broader issues of systemic racism and inequality here in Bristol and beyond.”
Saranya Thambirajah, the equality, liberation and access officer at the university’s students’ union, expressed disappointment at the decision not to rename the buildings. “However, the truth is that renaming or not renaming will never be enough, and this has always been about a much deeper problem,” she said.
“Whilst the university may not have taken the bold step to rename a building, inequalities and the struggles we face can’t be addressed by looking just at names, or at any other single part of our university.”
