College Still Seeks to Use King’s Name

Allegations of plagiarism against the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have not dampened enthusiasm for renaming UC San Diego’s Third College after the slain civil rights leader, college officials said.

A Stanford University historian this week said King had plagiarized numerous passages in his doctoral dissertation and other academic papers.

Third College “Provost Cecil Lytle remains very supportive of Dr. King’s achievements and contributions to society as whole” and continues to strongly advocate the college’s renaming after King, said Mae Brown, the college’s director of academic advising.

A proposed agreement between the college and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change in Atlanta nearly is completed, about a year after college officials proposed the renaming and several months after the college began negotiating for an endorsement from the King Center.

No date has been set for concluding those talks and deliberations are continuing, Brown said.

King Center officials were not available for comment.

The King Center is asking the college to issue a statement in support of nonviolent social change and establish a scholarship fund or an endowed chair in King’s name, Brown said.

Coretta Scott King, King’s widow, is concerned about the depth of San Diego’s support for her late husband after proposals to name Market Street and the convention center after King failed in recent years, Brown said.

College officials expressed confidence that Third College will be able to incorporate King’s theories of nonviolent social change into its framework, but said raising funds for scholarships or an endowed chair will offer a more difficult challenge.

Third College, established in 1970, was the third undergraduate college created at UCSD. The issue of renaming it arose several times until 1985, when the UC Board of Regents made the Third College name official.

In 1989, however, Lytle, who was named provost a year earlier, rejuvenated the issue and supported using King’s name.

The civil rights leader’s name received the most votes last year from a review process involving students, faculty and administrators, and a university committee approved the proposal, Brown said.

The measure’s outcome depends on the college satisfying the King Center’s requirements and the final approval by UCSD Chancellor Richard Atkinson and the UC regents.