A debate has been sparked about the traditions at Yale.

Yale Daily News reports.

Stephen Davis asks Pierson students not to call him “master”

Stephen Davis, a religious studies professor who has led Pierson College since July 2013, has asked that students cease calling him “master.”

In a Friday email to the Pierson community, Davis cited “deeply problematic” racial and gender hierarchies associated with the title, which has been affixed to leaders of the residential colleges from their inception in the 1930s. Since then, the colleges have grown in number, set to expand from 12 to 14 in 2017, and have become a hallmark of undergraduate life at Yale.

They have also sparked considerable debate. Davis’s request comes in the context of renewed campus dialogue about racially charged names and symbols — notably Calhoun College, which is named for the segregationist John C. Calhoun, class of 1804.

Davis asked members of the Pierson community to address him as “doctor” or “professor,” and to refer to his administrative role as “head of college.”