In July, the college announced that the name of the Carlsen Center building, that was named after former President Charles Carlsen, would be removed and changed to the Midwest Trust Center. The name was chosen after the college received a million-dollar donation from Brad Bergman and his wife, Libby, who founded Midwest Trust.
Students and faculty members at the college along with community members of the Johnson County area have been asking for the name to change since 2006, when sexual harassment allegations were made against Carlsen while he was president. The allegations were never proven true or false, but the community felt the name needed to change.
In the college’s official press release, the allegations and the push from the community to change the name because of Carlsen’s alleged actions were not discussed. Greg Musil, chairman of the Board of Trustees believes the college needs to move forward and not bring up the past.
“There was no benefit to rehashing, in my opinion, what had already been noted for the public and talked about so the only way to go forward is to go forward,” Musil said.
Isabella Duckworth, a current student, said it’s understandable that the college just wanted to move forward. However, she doesn’t think it is right that the allegations were not mentioned when discussing the change because of the affect it has had on former and current students, faculty and the community.
“They didn’t want to bring it up and stir up a problem again…which I don’t think is right,” Duckworth said. “I think they should have announced it and been fully honest with the public.”
Trustee Angeliina Lawson hopes that in the future and if something like this happens again, the public and the community can be heard and more involved.
“I hope that the board responds more numbly and or nimble to be able to react in a much more efficient way that’s transparent,” Lawson said. “That makes people feel included in the process, which with whatever information or questions people have, the public deserves answers.”
Emily Behrman, general manager of the performing arts, has worked for the college since 1991. She remembers the allegations towards Carlsen and believes it is about time the name was changed.
“I think it’s a good thing and I think it’s long overdue,” Behrman said.
Lawson, had seen first-hand the push made by the college community to change the name, including from former Editor-in-Chief of the Campus Ledger, Samantha Joslin, in January.
“We’ve had several students come forward,” Lawson said. “We’ve had professors come forward. And even when I was going through the election process…the Faculty Senate had a very large meeting about this topic. So, this is something on an ongoing basis.”
Musil said the timing lined up this Summer for the name to be changed. The college had received a donation and Carlsen also agreed to the change.
“In this case, it was both a willingness of the Carlsen’s to have the name removed so that we could take advantage of a gift from Brad and Libby Bergman,” Musil said.
In April, the board put together a committee that oversaw the change. After many years of the board ignoring pleas from students, faculty and the community, Lawson was happy to see the board had made a move towards change, but that there was not an open conversation about the name change.
“I was pleasantly surprised that the chair had put together a renaming committee for this topic, Lawson said. “And it was very short and quick. No presentations, no discussion and moved on.”
Lawson had requested the board consider members of the college for the new name, but those requests fell through.
“I had requested that the nomination committee really look at students and faculty as potential naming rights, because that’s where we were in somewhat of the same vein of being able to name off a service and not off a donations,” Lawson said.
The committee decided on the name of the Midwest Trust Center and according to Musil, no other names were considered.
“The only name considered because the only one nominated at the time was the one based on the Bergman contribution,” Musil said.
The college is working to have the signs of the building and the other places the Carlsen Center is listed on campus changed. It is expected that sometime in December or January, the college will remove the Carlsen Center and replace it with the Midwest Trust Center.
By Gracyn Shulista