Marquette University has removed its namesake, Fr. Jacques Marquette, from the school's official seal so as to "more accurately depict the role of the Indigenous nations that guided Father Marquette on his journey." In its place, the school has inserted an image representing a "land acknowledgement" that the university's campus sits on indigenous peoples' land and that those people remain the school's "hosts."
In July 2020, a student launched a petition to change the seal that garnered just 645 signatures out of a 1,000-signature goal. Nonetheless, Marquette's Board of Trustees approved the change, which removes a depiction of Fr. Marquette standing in a canoe and pointing toward the horizon while a Native American rows.
"The Marquette University seal is problematic," the petition reads. "Marquette's mission is focused on being inclusive of everyone and welcoming diversity. In order for Marquette to practice diversity in action, the seal should be changed."
The school agreed, and unveiled its updated seal on Monday.
"University seals are important symbols meant to celebrate an institution’s founding, heritage and purpose, and these often complex histories deserve thoughtful, reverential illustrations of our pasts," Marquette President Michael Lovell said in a news release. "As we have been called to reflect on our own symbols, it became clear that Marquette University needs a seal that aligns with our mission, vision and guiding values and reaffirms our Statement on Human Dignity and Diversity."
In its news release announcing the change, Marquette made a point to highlight the fact that it consulted with an Oneida artist who "contributed to the creative design of the updated university seal."
Rather than feature the school's namesake, a prominent 16th-century French Jesuit missionary, the updated seal features three rice plants in a river, which is meant to represent Marquette University's "land acknowledgement."
"Marquette University acknowledges that our campus and Milwaukee are the homelands and waters of the Menominee, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Fox, Mascouten, Sauk and Ojibwe nations, who have known this land and water as a relative for millennia and who remain our hosts on the land today," the school explains on its website.
Pictured: Marquette University's old seal (left) and its new seal replacing Fr. Marquette with an image depicting the school's land acknowledgement (right)