MIDDLEBURY, Vt. (WCAX) – Middlebury College has won a legal victory in a case over whether the college has the right to rename a chapel on campus that honored a former governor who supported the eugenics movement.
A Vermont Superior Court judge last week sided with the college that Middlebury Chapel can keep its name, rejecting an argument brought forth by former Gov. Jim Douglas, who argued that the name change violated a contract between the college and the family of John Abner Mead, and that it was motivated by “cancel culture.”
In the ruling, Judge Robert Mello left open for further litigation the question of whether the name change violated a contract, but he did say that the Mead estate is not “entitled to relief compelling Middlebury to retain the chapel’s original name or monetary relief compensating the name change.”
Coming up on the Channel 3 News at 5, reporter Kiana Burks spoke with Gov. Douglas about the decision and his plans going forward.