Students protest renaming of Columbus Day

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A decision to strip Columbus Day from the Brown University calendar because of the explorer’s violence against Native Americans sparks a protest at the Ivy League school.

A group of student Republicans are planning a protest Monday afternoon to object to the university’s decision to rename the holiday “Fall Weekend.”

Keith Dellagrotta, a Brown senior who leads the school’s College Republicans club, described the decision as political correctness gone too far. He said Columbus should be celebrated for bringing the European political tradition to the New World, which led to the foundation of the United States.

Hundreds of Brown students asked the Providence school to stop observing Columbus Day because of atrocities committed against American Indians.