We have opened a consultation process to help us find a new name for our School of Art, Architecture and Design. We have designed a process that involves our community and subject experts who will help us choose a name that represents our creative, ambitious and diverse community.
Suggest a new name for our School of Art, Architecture and Design
Why we changed our name
London Metropolitan University made the decision to remove the name of Sir John Cass’ in the wake of increased awareness in the UK over the legacy of slave traders, following the toppling of a statue of Edward Colston in Bristol on 7 June 2020. Our statement at the time said:
"We recognise that the use of Sir John Cass' name contributes to the redemption of a man without acknowledging the enormous pain he caused as a major figure in the early development of the slave trade, and the legacy of this pain. The use of his name is incompatible with our commitment to support the Black community and to actively oppose racism in all forms."
Sir John Cass
Sir John Cass worked directly for The Royal African Company (RAC), which abducted, trafficked and enslaved more African slaves to the Americas than any other company in the history of the Atlantic slave trade.
In removing the name, London Met was recognising that the philanthropic activities of Sir John Cass in his lifetime - and subsequently of his foundation - do nothing to cancel out the vile crimes perpetrated against African communities and people by the RAC for nearly 100 years.
Addressing the legacy of Sir John Cass through art
As one of the country’s leading art schools, we also wanted to explore a medium through which we could directly address the legacy of Sir John Cass as part of this journey to a new identity.
We are therefore launching a Reparatory Justice Art Project in parallel with the School Renaming Project to commemorate this new chapter for the School of Art, Architecture and Design, aligning with the University’s Race Equity Strategic Plan.
Black artists from the University’s alumni community will be invited to submit expressions of interest in creating a piece of permanent artwork that will be installed on our campus at Aldgate and which will be developed through a series of collaborative workshops involving students, staff and our wider community.
More information about the project, and how to get involved, will be shared on these pages and via email on Thursday 24 March 2022.
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School renaming project FAQs
London Metropolitan University made the decision to remove the name of Sir John Cass’ in the wake of increased awareness in the UK over the legacy of slave traders, following the toppling of a statue of Edward Colston in Bristol on 7 June 2020. Our statement at the time said:
"We recognise that the use of Sir John Cass' name contributes to the redemption of a man without acknowledging the enormous pain he caused as a major figure in the early development of the slave trade, and the legacy of this pain. The use of his name is incompatible with our commitment to support the Black community and to actively oppose racism in all forms."
We’ve drawn a representative group from our community to coordinate the naming process:
- Precious Agho, Vice President of London Met’s Students’ Union and full-time officer for the School of Art, Architecture and Design
- Sofia Akel, Race Equity Lead
- Deon Butler, Director of Marketing and Communications
- Dr Zainab Khan, Pro Vice-Chancellor and lead from our Senior Leadership Team
- Anne Markey, Interim Head at the School of Art, Architecture and Design
- Ben Sawtell, Head of Communications
- Michael Upton, Head of Academic Portfolio
We want to draw on the imagination and creativity of our community to select a name that represents the values and mission of our School. However, there are a small number of name types that we won’t consider as part of the process.
Exclusion criteria
- names of living people
- names that refer to, or are forms of, Sir John Cass
- names that could form objectionable acronyms
We launched an open call for names suggestions on Thursday 17 March closing on Thursday 7 April. All suggestions will be verified against our exclusion criteria and then evaluated for initial trademarking issues, before being analysed by an expert group including London Met Staff and representatives from our Public Affairs Agency - Lodestone Communications.
Each suggested name will be checked for initial trademark risks, before being analysed by an expert group to:
- check all names against our naming criteria
- assess them for trademark risks/conflicts
- undertake a branding evaluation to ensure proposals
- are credible, compelling and distinctive
- are compatible with the London Met brand
- checked for translations and cultural connotations that might be undesirable
The School naming group will use the qualitative input provided alongside the name and the analysis provided by our branding. In addition, the group will take into account the feedback received from the audience at a special interactive art workshop, which will be delivered in a hybrid format both in person and online. The voting process created for that workshop will stay live for four days after the workshop for further comments from the community.
The School naming group will submit a recommendation to the University’s Senior Leadership team and Board of Governors in May, based on the outcome of consultative long and shortlisting processes.
The naming process is drawn from the experiences of institutions, in the UK and USA, that have been through a renaming process due to associations with the slave trade or names that have are tarnished by with racism or inequality. The detailed process followed by City, University London to rename their Cass Business School to Bayes Business School was a key source. The group is also very grateful to Dr Shawn Sobers, Professor of Cultural Interdisciplinary Practice at the University of the West of England. His experience as a member of the We Are Bristol History Commission provided us with several valuable insights when designing our process.
The proposed process has a number of stages for contributions from our community, and also bring in branding and legal experts to make sure we have a viable, credible name that is representative of our community.