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Campus Lane renamed Cesar Chavez Drive
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What’s in a name? A memory? A history? Yes, and so much more.
The Faculty Senate and now the Associated Students of Boise State University Senate voted to support changing the name of Campus Lane to Cesar Chavez Drive, so that the name “Cesar Chavez” should become permanently engrained within the fabric of BSU. The university desired to find a path to honor this man, and it has, by giving him a street of his own.
Campus Lane borders BSU on its northern side, running parallel with the Greenbelt and the Boise River. It is the longest street on campus.
The gripe students attending Tuesday’s ASBSU Senate meeting had with the name change was that it was not a more public street, or a new street, somewhere more students could see the name.
The resolution the Senate passed says that Chavez was a true American hero, a civil rights activist, and a pioneer in the fight for farm workers’ rights. The resolution states that the name change would encourage more diversity and education into Chavez’s cause. Chavez was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. The award is the highest civilian honor in the U.S.
About 25 students and faculty attended the meeting in the Student Union Forum to form the gallery. Most came in support of the resolution and raised a raucous applause when the resolution passed 13-1, with one senator absent.
The following are statements in support of the resolution by the gallery and the Senate:
“You [the Senate] speak of tradition. This is an opportunity to create a new tradition,” said Ariel Anderson. Anderson also suggested naming other streets after social leaders such as the late Robert F. Kennedy.
“By naming a street after [Chavez], we would create an educational opportunity,” said Megan Egbert.
“This is an opportunity to honor someone who expressed his life through helping others,” said Robert Beruth. “He died poor, but he died rich with friends and the people he helped.”
Beruth claimed it significant to name the street after someone who had given his life to a cause, not one that paid to get his name on a building.
“His name has transcended national borders,” said Sen. Dang Du, while addressing the Senate and the gallery. “Look at these students. They don’t come with pitchforks; they come armed with pens and notebooks and a concerned voice.”
“I don’t think naming a street after him is enough,” said Sen. Christian Busnardo. “Cultural ethnicity is a delicate subject. It shouldn’t be.” Busnardo assured the gallery that although most of the students at the meeting knew who Chavez was, there are a great many students around campus that do not.
Dick Baker, a sociology professor at BSU, addressed the Senate, answering why the “back alley” of BSU was chosen to take on Chavez’s namesake. He said that he had asked Boise State University President Bob Kustra for funding to hire artists to create murals and display their work along the future Cesar Chavez Drive, so that the street would transform into an educational avenue proving to “be a tribute worthy of his name.”
“I think that very few students know what that street is named now,” said Sen. Texie Evans. “More people would hang out there if they knew.”
Students living in the dorms would also have their mailing addresses changed to Cesar Chavez Drive.
“He changed my life,” said Sam Byrd, owner of Diversity Works, a cross-cultural consulting firm. “He came. He inspired. He led. He provided the model, the values, the philosophy. He has helped others realize their lives through helping others.”
Byrd came to Idaho at age nine and was the only one of his 30-member migrant family to graduate high school. Byrd quoted Chavez, “All we have is our life.”
For more information about Cesar Chavez, try any search engine and you can find more than half a million links to the man’s name.
Dustin Lapray
News Writer