 The building behind me is no longer called Krober Hall. The university removed the name this week as a step to reconcile with the past and repair relationships with Native American communities. For 61 years, the name Krober Hall was fixed on the Anthropology building, but Tuesday it was taken down in minutes. Native Americans on campus, like Valentin Sierra, says it's long overdue. To me, the unnaming is kind of the recognition that this person actually wasn't this idol that we should be celebrating to the fullest extent. The university says it's one of several namesakes honored around campus to be under critical review. Like almost all human beings, Krober was a complicated person, neither all good or entirely evil. Krober Hall is the fourth building to be unnamed by UC Berkeley within a year. Native Americans drove the effort with support from Chancellor Christ and the UC administration. What we believe in is to a certain extent embodying and represented by those we honor. Alfred Krober was a pioneer in the field of anthropology across the American West and at UC Berkeley a century ago. He studied Native cultures and taught anthropology classes on campus, but in recent years his methods have been criticized. Native Americans say he dishonored their ancestors by collecting the remains of hundreds of Native Americans and storing their bones in a repository on campus. Krober might be best known for his association with the native YAHI man known as Ishii, who he housed in the Anthropology Museum to live and be studied. It's coming from a Native perspective. He was very harming and the things that he wrote were damaging. One anthropology professor didn't defend all of Krober's methods, but did say some of the recent criticism is false. There was a letter signed by several people that was full of falsehoods, really. It was like the cancel culture had come to Berkeley. But even the university acknowledges that Krober's legacy is complicated. He actually played a lead role in contesting and undermining racist theories of his time. He launched efforts and initiatives that help support learning about Native American culture, life, and history. He learned so much from Ishii, who was having no one else to tell his stories. Val urges the university to be critical of the way that Krober's legacy is told. So to me, I thought that these professors, the responses and their ideas were very, very hurtful. And to me, I just don't understand why anyone would want to hold on to such outdated logic. Native students say that Indigenous groups should be included in any future plans to rename the building. It's important that we acknowledge the full history and everyone's perspective and kind of set us up on the track for reconciliation or almost towards healing, in a sense, for our communities from that harm that has been done historically.