SURIANO: It is time for Rutgers to honor legacy of Milton Friedman
What if I told you one of the greatest economists of the 20th century, a Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, a Nobel Laurette went to Rutgers. I imagine you, dear reader, would be a little surprised because surely Rutgers University the hallowed institution of higher learning that it is, would advertise this to its incoming students. Perhaps, dare I say, the administration would see it fit to honor this mystery man. Well as you have probably guessed, there is such a man who graduated from our fair University. This man was the noted economist Milton Friedman. I believe it is high time Rutgers does more to honor the legacy of Friedman.
Friedman, a child of immigrants, was born in New York City in 1912. He was sent to old Rutgers, resolved to learn all he could, and that he certainly did. He became one of the most prominent academics of the 20th century. He changed the way people thought about monetary policy. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics “for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy." He advised some of the most consequential leaders of his lifetime, including former President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Before you conclude Friedman must have been overly controversial or niche, only loved by certain Right-wing wackos, I submit in retort that he was ranked the second most popular economist by economic professors. No one would accuse college professors of being too conservative. Now that we have established that Freidman is, by any reasonable measure, a man that any Rutgers student, faculty member or alumnus should be proud of, we must consider whether Rutgers is ignoring his legacy and ask ourselves why.
To be fair Rutgers has not completely ignored Friedman’s legacy. There is a video discussing his legacy on the Rutgers website, and he was also inducted into the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished of Alumni. Now to learn these two facts, I typed “Milton Freidman” into the search bar on the Rutgers University website. I noted that Rutgers does not really go out of the way to advertise or promote its connection to its most consequential alumni. There are no buildings, statues, classrooms or chairs named in his honor. Now let us compare this to another one of Rutgers' most accomplished alumni Paul Robeson. There are multiple buildings bearing his name, a complete section about him on the Rutgers website, a grand banner with Robeson’s image was hung from Hardenberg Hall and few could have missed the numerous Robeson t-shirts handed out this year. Robeson was a man with such an incredible and wide-ranging talent, it is honestly unbelievable. A world-class athlete, a world class singer, a world class poet, a world class actor and a civil rights icon to boot. So, it is not the case that Rutgers cannot honor the legacy of Friedman and it is clear there is precedent for Rutgers to honor its accomplished alumni. It is also not the case that Friedman is not so honored because he was controversial or radical. As I have shown, Robeson is rightly honored, but he had some, shall we say, controversial opinions even today. Robeson was a great admirer of Joseph Stalin, the monstrously evil dictator, who killed somewhere between 20 and 60 million people, and even wrote a eulogy for Stalin titled “To You Beloved Comrade." I do not write this to discount the injustices done against Robeson or belittle his legacy. I write it to make the point that it could not possibly be that Friedman was too controversial or too wrong to be honored.
So why then has Rutgers done so little to honor Freidman? Well the answer is sadly simple. Freidman supported free markets and criticized the consensus of Keynesian economics. I believe I have provided retorts to other reasonable answers to that question. Could any honest person believe that if economist John Maynard Keynes had gone to Rutgers, there would be no building or statue of him on the Banks of the Raritan? I do not think so. So, the question remains: will Rutgers right this wrong? I believe it is high time for Rutgers to name a building, put up a statue or at least start telling his story to the incoming students of Rutgers. So, I say this to University President Robert L. Barchi, (yes, I know you read every one of my columns): it is high time to free Freidman.
Robert Suriano is a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore majoring in history. His column, "A RINO's View," runs on alternate Mondays.
*Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
YOUR VOICE | The Daily Targum welcomes submissions from all readers. Due to space limitations in our print newspaper, letters to the editor must not exceed 500 words. Guest columns and commentaries must be between 700 and 850 words. All authors must include their name, phone number, class year and college affiliation or department to be considered for publication. Please submit via email to [email protected] by 4 p.m. to be considered for the following day’s publication. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
