Let me preface this rant by thanking John and Leona Gehring for their large donation to the Henry C. Lee Institute. As a student in that college, I can say that we really do appreciate it.

That being said, please enjoy the next three years that it is named after you. After that time, the name will probably change due to another donation. That is the harsh reality.

There are several reasons why I have a problem with this name change. First and foremost, this is the third name change we have had in 2013. The first, Bergami Hall, which has always been highly opposed. While New Hall would not be a fitting name for an old hall, students still did not like the change one bit. Now, we are being hit with Chick Hall and Gehring Hall all at once. It only takes a peek at Facebook to see that students are highly dissatisfied. Will we be renaming buildings every time we receive money?

The second reason is that I truly believe that Henry C. Lee deserves the building. Not only did he create the program and the school, he created forensic science. He was the man who advanced it to what it is today. While the magnitude of the donation from the Gehrings cannot be ignored, Dr. Lee brings the school over ten times that money every year. How? Half the students here are forensic science and criminal justice majors. We are brought to this school by the prestige that Dr. Lee has created.

My next reason, while perhaps not the nicest, is honest. The students of the school know Henry C. Lee. We have heard him speak, joked with him, and been inspired by him. Plenty of us are even his friends with him online, and cheer when we see he has liked a picture we have together. (No shame.) We know him. That is what makes his institute feel like home.

My last reason is that the name of the building draws students to the University of New Haven. I am both a forensic science and biology major. I love both departments, groups of teachers, and subjects equally. However, I did not walk into any of the laboratories and think that whoever donated to them had created somewhere special for me to learn biology. Whenever you walk into the Henry C Lee Institute, you cannot ignore Dr. Lee’s successes everywhere. You feel part of an entire community smaller than the University as whole.

While I do appreciate the Gehring’s gift, the institute will always be the Henry C. Lee Institute to most of us here. That’s what makes it home.