Princeton University has said it will remove the name of former President Woodrow Wilson from its public policy school because of his segregationist views, reversing a decision the Ivy League school made four years ago to retain the name.

University president Christopher Eisgruber said in a letter to the school community on Saturday that the board of trustees had concluded that "Wilson's racist views and policies make him an inappropriate namesake" for Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs and the residential college.