By Cooper Fojas

In 1961, the University of Maryland opened a building along McKeldin Mall named after Sen. Millard Tydings, who held office from 1927 to 1951. But more than half a century later, amid nationwide reassessment of once revered historical figures, some students believe Tydings Hall should be renamed for the senator’s role in creating policy that led to the discrimination against Filipinos. 

Sponsored by Tydings and Rep. John McDuffie, the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 granted independence to the Philippines. But coupled with the Filipino Repatriation Act a year later, Tydings-McDuffie opened the door to the legal arrest, discrimination and limitations on the amount of Filipinos migrating to the United States, according to assistant history professor Patrick Chung.

“At this point, the U.S. had already drawn a thick line between what it meant to be American and not,” Chung said. “Filipinos were sort of on that line, so it kind of had to get thinner and leave them on the other side.”

The Repatriation Act was deemed unconstitutional just five years after its enactment. In 1946, the restrictions from the Tydings-McDuffie Act were loosened from 50 Filipino immigrants per year to 100. Shortly after, the Philippines was recognized by the United States as an independent nation with the Treaty of Manila, according to the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines. 

Despite loosened restrictions, students said Tydings’s name still creates a level of discomfort. M Pease, a doctoral student studying counseling psychology, said the name reminds them of the ways large universities have been complicit in structural oppression. 

“There is something, in a sort of twisted way, poetic about the name of this building,” said Pease, who is Filipino. “Educational institutions aren’t designed to provide narratives that are critical of the systems and structures that we exist with and, you know, sort of seek justice.”

The debate about the name of Tydings Hall is not new. UMD alum Cezar Lopez wrote an editorial about the school’s lack of an Asian American Studies program for The Diamondback in 2000. Later that year, amid additional advocacy from students, a proposal for an Asian American Studies Program was approved by the University Senate.

While he was a student, Lopez said seeing Tydings’ name reminded him of the discrimination Filipinos faced in this country.

“In 2023, it’s almost an easier conversation because there has been progress in our country and in our culture about the importance of taking a comprehensive and honest look at history,” Lopez said regarding a possible name change.

In 2015, the University of Maryland System Board of Regents voted to remove Curley Byrd’s name from the football stadium due to the former university president’s support of segregation.

Nevertheless, the question of whether Tydings Hall should undergo a similar change remains a debate.

Gem Daus, an adjunct lecturer in the Asian American Studies Department, is more interested in the lessons to be learned from the Tydings-McDuffie Act than in the name of the building.

“I haven’t heard anything overtly negative or racist about [Tydings], but that’s not to say the bill was very good,” Daus said. “‘Come one, come all,’ whatever it says on the base of the Statue of Liberty, it’s not something we’ve actually lived up to.”

Moving conversations from the classroom environment to a meeting room with a governing body is another task to tackle, according to Pease, a former University Senate member.

“It would be interesting to discuss the nature of the university’s relationship with colonialism and imperialism,” Pease said. “In what ways has the university really grappled with that history and worked to undo not only racism, but colonialism and imperialism in the ways that it’s tied into their roots?”

The northern exterior of Tydings Hall on Sep. 25, 2023. Photo by Cooper Fojas.