What's in a Name? Everything.
"A rose by another name would smell as sweet." - ShakespeareWhat is the purpose of a rose? Is there just to smell? Is it there to look at? Would a rose by a different name and a different look smell as sweet? Let's rename a rose to a "Rat's Armpit." I am not sure that Rat's Armpit Gardens would be springing up in gardens in places like Greenwich, CT, and Bellevue, Washington. There is a lot in a name.
I was fortunate to get into medical school in 1979. I was also fortunate to attend the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York. Besides all the academic reasons I felt fortunate to be there, Albert Einstein was also a personal hero of mine.
When we first got there we were shown a brief newsreel clip of a press conference with Albert Einstein where he proclaimed that he was proud to offer his name to a medical institution. Einstein was truly a great person. With Newton, he shares the podium as the greatest geniuses of the last two millennia. He wrote extensively on world issues related to peace and the human condition. Paraphrasing the famous science writer CP Snow, commenting on Einstein's General Theory of Relativity proclaimed that while many of Einstein's great discoveries world have eventually been found by others, this particular advance would never have been conceived by any human for eternity. Pretty good stuff. It gives you a good feeling to be educated in his house.
Let's fast forward to our current times. Alumni and students at two venerable institutions of higher learning - Cornell University Medical School and Brown University Medical School- essentially found that their institutions renamed their medical schools.When I heard the medical schools were to be renamed I was excited. I thought of all the amazing people in the past half century that could have qualified for such a high honor from two Ivy League institutions. There was Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, Richard Feynman, The Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa, Jonas Salk, Eleanor and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and countless others of recent heroes not to mention historical figures like George Washington Carver, Robert Oppenheimer, Woodrow Wilson, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Abraham Lincoln, and others.
It was not meant to be.
Cornell renamed its medical school for Sanford Weill, the CEO of Citibank, and Brown renamed its medical school for Warren Alpert, a billionaire who made most of his fortune developing selling fuel and groceries through Xtra Mart stores in gasoline stations across the country. Wow. Free checking and chili dogs for all incoming first year medical students.
Don't get me wrong. This is not about Mr. Weill or Mr. Alpert who by all accounts are deeply generous and good people. They gave a lot of money. A lot of money. I mean a real lot of money. For that something should be named for them - a building, a division of the school (The Weill Division of Cardiology at Cornell, for example) - but the entire medical school? What was Ezra Cornell, chopped liver? The naming of something as precious as one of our 80 medical schools in this country should be reserved to remind the public of the truly great figures in our country's history and not the fattest wallets.In my living room there is a unique black and white photograph hanging over the fireplace. It is a photo of Albert Einstein taken at Princeton University (will that soon become Sam Walton College?) in 1948. The photograph was taken by the great jazz photographer Hermann Leonard who was an apprentice at the time with the great portrait photographer Yusef Karsch. Mr. Leonard was a young kid at the time and Mr. Karsch gave him permission to take shots of Einstein on the set that Karsch set up.
A few years ago I was in Herman's house in New Orleans and saw this photo in a stack of long-forgotten images in a career known for capturing the essence of Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and others. I acquired this rare print from Herman who signed it: Albert Einstein, Princeton 1948 on the Karsch Set, Herman Leonard.
My hero, the namesake of my medical school is in a proud location in my living room. I wonder if graduates from the Weill school are so proud of their alma mater's namesake to have him (probably on the 9th hole at an exclusive golf club) smiling at them from their mantle? Don't even go there with Brown's Alpert School of Medicine. Do they distribute cardboard Warren Alpert-shaped scents to hang from their mirrors in their cars? Give me a freakin' break.
Now I know what a few of the yo-yo heads out there will say. These men are great philanthropists. Mr. Alpert started the Alpert Award in medicine 14 years ago recognizing and funding important medical research. Sanford Weill is also a supreme philanthropist.
Philanthropy is not a profession. You can't be a "great" philanthropist. You can be a generous one, but greatness? Hey, it is the giving of money. It is not discovering a cure, a planet, and solution for peace. There are many generous philanthropists. I have an aunt who gives a hundred dollars every year to her favorite charity. There are countless who give weekly to their church when they pass around the basket. I don't see any medical schools named after them.
Is it volume or frequency that makes a philanthropist generous? Well, I guess in the naming of medical schools size matters. That's all that seems to matter.
Giving to others should be the ordinary, not the extraordinary. Naming a medical school should be reserved for the extraordinary. There is nothing extraordinary about amassing money. These two schools passed over countless of extraordinary Americans and Internationals and moved their school names into the realm of the deeply ordinary.
I am waiting for Harvard to change its name to R. A. Pit School of Medicine. I am sure Mr. Rats Arm Pit gave a ton of dough. I am sure it will be the same prestigious school.
A rose by any other name...
Dr. K.
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11 Comments:
Hasn't it always been said, Money makes the world go 'round!? I agree with you, Dr. K, but unfortunaltely money is what decides who gets their name on what and who gets what awards and who get what job promotions, etc. It's unfair and it's immoral but it is the way of our greedy world. Linda Kennedy
I mainly agree with the sentiments expressed. However, in the interests of accuracy, please note that there are far more than "80 medical schools". In fact, there are 125 US med schools that grant the MD degree, and additionally there are more than 20 schools that grant the DO degree.
As for school names, an even more interesting one might be the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA!
As for Ezra Cornell, he was a businessman too! He was a fine man, but he made his fortune in the telegraph industry. And universities such as Vanderbilt and Stanford are named for men who made their fortunes in the railroad industry. So what's the difference?
Larry Phillips
To Anonymous:
The difference with Ezra Cornell and Vanderbilt is that they lived during a dark time in American history of the common citizen- the time of the robber barons. It was a time when the average citizen was abused in sweat shots and immigrants abused building the railroads. I would like to think we have matured and learned something since that time...Obvious- hisotry does tend to repeat itself- at least this time.
Dr. K.
I truly have to agree with you, Dr. K. I especially like the comment about how giving to others should be common unlike discovering a theory that challenges how we think of space, time, and matter. I have to wonder, though, how many of these "great philanthropists" would be so philanthropic if there were no chance of their name being engraved on a wall somewhere or on the outside of a building on a college campus.
Dianne McBride
Would you rather they hadn't donated a dime and then you could name the empty lot anything you want!
While the Harvard School of Medicine may not be changing its name to honor your particular "Mrs.Pit", you may still not have to wait too long to see your nightmare realized: I hear the Pitt-Jolie clan has just made a sizeable donation to the school. ;-)
I most certainly concur with your opinion on this subject, Dr.K.
The fact that America's newest generation of voters is more familiar with a young Hilton hotel heiress than with any of our government officials is a sad commentary on our society. As you do, I also feel that "giving" should be a "given"; not the exception but the rule.
So, let's count our blessings... Let us look forward to sending our grandchildren off to prestigious institutions of "higher" learning such as U-COW (University of Columbia/Oprah Winfrey's School of Journalism) in New York, or to M.I.T. (Madonna's Institute of Technology) at Cambridge. If only Diana Ross and Rhea Perlman combined their philantropic efforts, we may be able to see future generations of doctors go on to medical school after graduating with honors from Dia-Rhea College.
Rumor has it that a geeky Oregon tycoon has just purchased the entire city of Hell, in Livingston County, Michigan. Soon, they will be breaking ground for what promises to be one of the greatest centers for the study of Theology. Think of how proud we will feel sending our future religious leaders to the "Gates of Hell University"... Oh, what joy!
Before anyone points it out... Yes, I'm quite aware of the correct spelling of the word "Philanthropy". I just wanted to honor my alma mater, the school where I took all of my grammar courses at. Did I mention I obtained my degree from "Dr.Phil's School of Medicine" in Texas? ;-)
Awesome rant, Dr.K!
Unfortunately the 'sad commentary' isn't our society, it's our SCHOOLS. Maybe you all should be more concerned with what goes on INSIDE the buildings than what name is on the outside!
you should hear who they are naming a madison wisconsin school after! he's a famous mong... some pretty famous illegal drug runner. perhaps you have heard his name on the tv recently.(vang pow? not sure if thats spelled right, but i'd better learn to spell it if its going to be on a shcool here!) he's just been arrested for a sinister plot. his past isn't so squeeky clean either.
he was know in the past for his gun running and nacotics trade. wow we really want that name on a school here in madison! just think of the the inspiration that would give the kids there! 'do your best to be the top at war crimes in your class! win recognition big time!
I agree with the comment made about being more concerned with what goes on inside the school rather than the name. I also agree that is is important to preserve the historical value of the names that helped create such a great nation and educational system. I don't feel it matters the profession of the "philanthropist" as long as their intention is pure. There are many people who fight their way to the top of their field and truly would like to give something back and that does deserve recognition, maybe not an entire school name, but kudos non-the-less. This is also part of history, as history happens every day. Oh, and that comment on the Dia-Rhea College, very clever...:)
Great comments by Phil Antropy, M.D. I think that in the Dia-Rhea Medical School we should have Ahnold (sp) Schwarzenneger as the dean to teach the incoming doctors bedside manner with phrases like:
I'll be back...
Hasta la vista, baby
The forst will be said by docs holding out for health reform and the latter for thse who know it will never happen.
Dr. K.
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