EAST LANSING, Mich. — Since 2017, one lab in the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University has been named after alumni and donor Larry Gaynor. The Asian Pacific American Student Organization (APASO) is pushing for a name change.
Connor Le, a student representative for APASO, said they would like the name to be changed because of a racially-motivated incident by Gaynor in 2020.
"Larry Gaynor, the situation happened in 2020, where he went on a racist and xenophobic tirade against Vietnamese, specifically Vietnamese salon owners, where he said things like, 'we're in America, we speak English here, go to Vietnam if you speak Vietnamese' and saying stuff like Vietnamese have done nothing good for the salon, the salon beauty, salon company."
Removing Gaynor's name is not the only thing the Asian Pacific American Student Organization wants to be done.
"We'd like to see an apology from MSU, a statement from MSU, saying that we know what he said was wrong, and we're sorry to Asian students on campus," Le said.
The bill requesting a name change passed the Associated Students of Michigan State University Academic Committee and is now headed to the ASMSU general assembly next week. If it passes, the bill will go to President Samuel Stanley and Board of Trustees.
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