OPINION

Farewell to UF’s Karl Marx study room, more perplexing in death than life

Zachariah Chou
Columnist
Library West at the University of Florida campus, which all but shut down completely due to COVID-19, in Gainesville, Fla. April 8, 2020.

This has already been a strange year, but I must admit, the University of Florida removing Karl Marx’s name off of a study room in one of its libraries was not on my 2022 bingo card. 

Here’s what happened: 

A Campus Reform reporter, formerly employed by the Trump Victory Committee and Republican National Committee, published an article about the existence of a study room at UF named after Karl Marx.

There was not a soul quoted in the article, which leads me to believe the reporter had trouble finding anyone actually upset about the room. It was just a study room named after a historical figure, like many other study rooms. 

Jesus may have been able to turn water into wine, but conservative news site Campus Reform can sure make something out of nothing. 

Obviously this upset many conservatives and if I had to guess, one of two things happened: Either someone from within the state government directed someone at UF to take action, or UF decided to act on its own accord. 

And boy was it a mess. 

UF stripped the study room of its name and then puzzlingly cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as justification (Karl Marx was German).

Karl Marx

“Given current events in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world, we determined it was appropriate to remove the name of Karl Marx that was placed on a group study room at the University of Florida in 2014,” a university official told Campus Reform, just eight days later.

Even Breitbart called the justification incredible (and not in a good way). 

I don’t blame UF for having to take action, especially if there was a gun to an administrator’s head held by someone in DeSantis’ administration, but the justification and ensuing ridicule on social media is a classic example of how the coverup can be worse than the crime. 

That being said, I would like to bring up something interesting I’ve noticed, and that is the speed at which UF can get rid of the names attached to buildings — and now study rooms. 

Some may recall the lightning efficiency in which UF physically stripped its chemistry building of Joseph Hernandez’s name after circumstances surrounding his donation commitments changed.

In stark contrast, I haven’t heard much news from the UF task force that was put together to evaluate the names of controversial buildings on campus, such as the Reitz Union.

You may recall that former UF President J. Wayne Reitz was not only a segregationist, but also complicit in the state’s targeting of LGBTQ individuals on UF’s campus via the legislature’s Johns Committee.

Will any campus buildings ever get renamed as a result of the task force and its deliberations? It is hard to say, though perhaps the chance grows dimmer with each passing day. 

If anything should come out of this Karl Marx debacle, perhaps a renewed scrutiny of the task force can be the silver lining to UF’s most recent public humiliation. 

Out there in the multiverse, there is an alternate UF that has stripped the Reitz Union of its name. In its justification, a spokesperson tells the press, “Given current events in the Florida Legislature, namely the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, we determined it was appropriate to remove the name of Reitz Union that was placed on our student union many years ago.” 

Zachariah Chou serves as an opinion coordinator for USA Today’s Georgia Network. He graduated from UF in 2020.