When you were younger in school you may have been taught that Christopher Columbus was a brave, adventurous man who discovered America and made peace with the Native Americans.  
          And, like myself, once you got older you realized this was all wrong. You learned that Columbus was an invader and did not discover America, nor did he have respect for the people who were here first. His main goal was religious conversion and to make profit off the Native Americans through slavery, and to do so he was violent in ways unimaginable; putting a tremendous amount of suffering on the people who were in this country before him. 
       Despite his atrocities, in many parts of the country we still celebrate and have "Columbus Day" - a day when many get school and work off to "commemorate" what Columbus did 500 years ago. 
      So why do we- a proactively non-racist and welcoming campus - fail to recognize how hypocritical it is to continue to ignore this issue? Sure, we have changed our "Columbus Day" to "Fall Weekend," but in a way isn't that worse? Not only does it show that we acknowledge how evil Columbus was, but it shows that it is simply not important enough to honor the Native Americans.  
      To live up to our values as an accredited university, we must raise awareness and start celebrating the Native Americans who have suffered for years without acknowledgement. Please, help me to create change on our campus and sign this petition to change the name from "Fall Weekend" to Indigenous Peoples' Day.