New York University students want school officials to rename a building dedicated to a billionaire art collector who was ordered to return looted antiquities this week, according to a report.
In a deal with the Manhattan District Attorney, philanthropist Michael Steinhardt agreed to surrender 180 items worth roughly $70 million.
The deal allowed Steinhardt to avoid any criminal repercussions for possessing the illicit items.
But students at NYU’s Steinhardt School for Culture, Education, and Human Development — which is named for the philanthropist — want to scrub the association, according to the student newspaper.
Anthony Cruz, the president of the department’s undergraduate student government, told Washington Square News that he will press for the removal of Steinhardt’s name.
“We are really emphasizing again how his actions and his behavior really go against the very core of the mission and the values that we should have as a school and as an institution,” Cruz said.
The department was named for Steinhardt after he donated $10 million to the school in 2001.
Students previously tried to efface his name in 2019 after Steinhardt was hit with sexual misconduct allegations.
But the school declined to take any action after an investigation.
“I think that a lot of other students at NYU are also going to feel similarly about renaming the school,” student Olivia Hughart told the outlet. “We want our school to be represented by people that we all see as leaders.”
Cruz said he will be issuing a formal statement on the matter signed by both the undergraduate and graduate Steinhardt student governments in the coming days.