A two-age memo later, the Catt Hall controversy is fast becoming one the most divisive issues to hit Iowa State in years.

Derrick Rollins, the new diversity adviser to the president’s cabinet and chairman of the African American studies program, wrote the memo and distributed it to the faculty earlier this week. In it, he calls on faculty members to join him in advocating a Catt Hall name change.

The memo (which can be read on page five) has forced members of the ISU community to once again consider their feelings about a building that, some say, is a monument to an admitted racist.

For members of the September 29th Movement and others who have never stopped pushing university officials to rename the hall, the letter added fuel to their fire.

Rollins, speaking out for the first time since writing the memo, said two conversations, one with a Daily reporter and one with a member of the September 29th Movement, led him to write it.

“I think what happened on Friday is I felt an urgency to resolve how I was feeling.

“I wanted to make sure, that in my own words, people knew where I was in my thinking on the issue,” Rollins said.

He said he felt somewhat forced into resolving his views due in part to articles published recently and in previous weeks.

“I felt it was necessary to be true to my convictions regardless of how controversial they would be,” Rollins said.

Rollins said he did not want to say anything else until he had talked with ISU President Martin Jischke, which he had not done as of press time Thursday.

Nancy Eaton, dean of library services, said she read the memo and thinks “he [Rollins] has certainly come to this position through a lot of thought, but I think other equally thoughtful people have come to different conclusions.

“I guess my major concern in reading the memo is the implication that if you don’t agree with his conclusion that means you are not supportive of diversity on this campus,” she said. “I believe this is a false test.”

Eaton said she was surprised Rollins did not talk to Jischke before writing the memo. “Given that Rollins is supposed to be an adviser to the president, I would have expected some consultation.”

Mark Engelbrecht, dean of the College of Design, said he thought the Catt Hall controversy was beginning to calm.

“But Derrick obviously has been invited by the president to advise on matters of this sort, and he has certainly done that.”

Bob Hollinger, associate professor of philosophy, said he was shocked to see the memo, but probably not as surprised as the president.

“I admire this guy, Rollins, and I hope he keeps his job,” Hollinger said. “Jischke likes to appoint administrators who do what they are told and not people who raise these issues in public.”

Hollinger thinks Rollins has “a valid point.”

“If we do have a building that upsets people then the rethinking of a decision like this is not too much to ask,” he said.

Fern Kupfer, associate professor of English, has asked her first-year composition students to form an opinion on this issue.

In order for them to establish a view, she has given students letters both for and against the name change, a copy of the memo, and issues of Uhuru magazine, a campus publication that has called for a name change.

They have a week to come to a conclusion.

“I consider myself a strong feminist, and I have given money to the Carrie Chapman Catt Center. I was so proud and excited to have it on campus, and I have changed my mind.

“I have changed my mind, and I think we should rename Catt Hall,” Kupfer said.

She said Rollins’ memo was the final influence that led her to form a new conclusion.

Kupfer said she was disappointed to hear many faculty and administrators have no opinion and would rather have heard they were still thinking about the issue because it is complicated.

Camilla Benbow, professor and chairwoman of the psychology department, is one who is “still thinking.”

“Well, I think I don’t have much of an opinion on it. I am considering it and have no comment at this stage,” Benbow said.

Stephen Pett, professor of English, doesn’t understand why more people haven’t spoken out.

“It astonishes me that so many people are reluctant to comment.”

He said this is surprising “in an institution supposedly devoted to the examination of issues of utmost importance.”

Engelbrecht said students and faculty may need more information. “It is difficult to admit we don’t know.

“I think there are a lot of people who have extremely mixed feelings about this and do not have the information to come to conclusions they want to share.”

Elizabeth Hoffman, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said her opinion was stated “quite clearly” in a letter she wrote that was printed in the Daily during the fall semester of 1995.

In that letter, she talked about Catt’s contributions to the women’s movement as the principle reason for honoring Catt.

Hoffman said she did not want to comment any further.

Regardless of their opinions, or lack of, many faculty members now say the Catt Hall controversy will have to be addressed further and looked at objectively.

“This is a real issue that is obviously not going to go away. I think the more general issue [Rollins] is raising is more basic.

“And I think the issue of Catt Hall is just an occasion for raising more general concerns African-American students have on this campus,” Hollinger said.