Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published by the College Fix on December 18, 2025. It is crossposted here with permission.

A Trinity College student recently resurrected the debate about whether a Confederate memorial plaque should remain on campus, amid a broader push to reevaluate historical symbols. 

The plaque is attached to a Civil War-era cannon on Trinity’s Hartford, Connecticut campus, and honors alumni who fought on both sides of the Civil War. 

Installed in 1950, it commemorates “Trinity men who fought for the principles in which they believed with the Union and Confederate forces.” While the memorial has stood for more than 70 years, some students argue that it no longer belongs in a prominent campus space.

A recent student op-ed in the Trinity Tripod called for the removal of the memorial. The op-ed was written by Savannah Brooks, editor-in-chief of the student newspaper and a history major.

“The plaque still serves as a Confederate memorial on a Union cannon,” Brooks told the College Fix in a recent email.

Brooks said the timing of the plaque’s installation is crucial to her argument. While reunification efforts following the Civil War were real, she believes they were most relevant in the late 19th century. 

“By the mid twentieth century, when the plaque was affixed to the cannon, the number of living Civil War participants was extremely small, and the last veteran would die within the decade,” she said. “The U.S. does not have a habit of honoring or memorializing those who attempted to destroy our country. Why should we make an exception for Confederates?”

She also emphasized that Trinity today is a different institution than it was when the plaque was installed. Brooks pointed to the presence of black students, faculty, staff, and trustees whose families were directly impacted by slavery. 

“We live in a different era of Trinity,” she said. “Black Americans who have been directly impacted by slavery in their ancestral line are classmates, professors, friends, staff, parents, trustees.” 

She added that emotional responses to campus symbols should be part of the decision making process. “If I feel discomfort walking past the cannons, how would a prospective student feel? A prospective donor?”

Rather than calling for the plaque to be destroyed, Brooks proposed relocating it to Trinity’s Watkinson Library, the college’s research archive. She said this would allow the plaque to be preserved and studied. 

“Removal does not erase historical context if something is removed with a clear and thoughtful purpose,” she told the Fix. She also suggested placing a historical marker near the cannons explaining the history of the plaque and the reason for its removal.

Brooks’ op-ed also mentioned a resolution to remove the memorial that previously was considered by the college’s student government. The College Fix contacted Trinity’s Student Government Association multiple times over the past week asking about the resolution and Brooks’ op-ed, but did not receive a response.

College spokesperson Hellen Diamond did respond, telling the Fix in an email last week: “Trinity has an official policy and procedure for community members who wish to petition changes to names or commemoratives. Students are free to express their opinions and to file a petition for changes. We are not aware of any such petition at this moment.”

Not everyone agrees with Brooks’ assessment. Historian Mary Grabar, who has written extensively about historical preservation, told the College Fix that students, who are still in the process of learning about history, should not be making decisions about removing historical markers.

Grabar warned that removal efforts negatively affect how students understand the past “because they learn that historical monuments are tools of ideology.” 

She rejected the idea that preserving monuments means endorsing history.

“Historians don’t endorse history,” Grabar said. “But every group in the world looks back to its forebears for their identity. You may not like what their tradition represents, but it is a tradition, and you don’t have a right to take it away from any group. When you do that you are acting as a censor and oppressor.”

Grabar also dismissed alternatives such as contextual plaques or explanatory displays. “There are no alternatives,” she said. “Symbols stand on their own, like works of art. Once you start explaining, you take away the symbolic power.”

She added that these campaigns are not driven by nuanced historical engagement. “They are motivated by retaliation and a desire to assert power over former oppressors,” she told the Fix.

The situation at Trinity reflects a broader fad on college campuses across the country as institutions continue to revisit markers connected to the Confederacy and other historical figures deemed to be problematic. 

In recent years, institutions ranging from military academies to public universities have removed or relocated statues, plaques, memorabilia, and names of Confederates following student activism and administrative review. Others have been vandalized.

At West Point, the U.S. Military Academy removed Robert E. Lee-related “paraphernalia” in 2022, while some public universities have renamed or dismantled Confederate memorials in response to campus pressure.

Image: “Trinity College” by Pilgab on Wikimedia Commons