Students Claim Harvard’s ‘Board of Overseers’ Is Offensive

Activist students at Harvard are calling for a renaming of the university’s “Board of Overseers.” The students argue that the term is offensive because the word overseer was once used to describe plantation managers.

According to a report by Campus Reform, an activist group called Harvard Forward is advocating for a series of changes at the university. Amongst the demands is that the university rename its “Board of Overseers,” which plays a vital role in the university’s governance.

The group claims that the term “Board of Overseers” was used to describe plantation managers in the American south prior to the Civil War. In a Twitter thread, the group claimed that the term “overseer” could not be separated from its racist history.

“The term “Overseer” cannot be separated from its historical context and connotations. The continued use of a word characterized by such deep-rooted racism is a testament to Harvard’s failure to confront our country’s history,” the group wrote.

The term "Overseer" cannot be separated from its historical context and connotations. The continued use of a word characterized by such deep-rooted racism is a testament to Harvard's failure to confront our country's history.

It's time to #RenameTheOverseers. 7/8

— Harvard Forward (@HarvardForward) July 9, 2020

The group provided a link to an encyclopedia entry that explained that the term “overseers” was used to describe plantation managers.

Overseers is a term referring to employees of plantation owners before 1865 who served as general managers of routine farming operations. They sometimes were former indentured servants themselves, liberated and in search of a better life. Others had been unsuccessful small farmers or the sons of small farmers who sought a more reliable source of income. Often lacking formal education, they generally were knowledgeable in the fields of agriculture, planting, harvesting, and husbandry and in the care and management of servants, slaves, and other laborers. Overseers routinely were entrusted with the care of property valued at thousands of dollars.

Breitbart News reported in 2017 that Harvard had abandoned the use of the term “masters” as a title for academic leaders. The university adopted the title “faculty dean” in its place.

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