UNC trustees approve new policy to rename campus buildings that have ties to racism
The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted Thursday to adopt a policy for renaming campus buildings and public spaces. That set in motion the process of considering the renaming of the Daniels Building, Carr Building, Ruffin Residence Hall and Aycock Residence Hall, whose namesakes are tied to white supremacy and racism.
“In this moment in the history of our university, our state and our nation, I believe that we are called to be a light in the dark corners in which racism has festered for far too long,” board member Gene Davis Jr. said at the meeting.
The policy and process “will expose and condemn racism and other forms of hate, will educate so we may all learn from the past, such that it is never repeated, and will play a role … in the healing of our state and our nation,” Davis said.
With the adoption of the policy, Davis asked UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz to immediately implement it and report back to the board with any formal requests. He said the board would call an emergency meeting to act on those recommendations.
At the meeting, Guskiewicz said he has started convening the committee that will provide a report about those four buildings by next Wednesday, so that he can make a recommendation to the board shortly after. He asked that a special meeting be called by July 31 to discuss those name changes.
He said this policy will allow the university to make “necessary changes and move the university forward.”
“Establishing a renaming policy will enable us to thoughtfully review recommendations and ensure the people we honor on our campus reflect our values today,” Guskiewicz said.
UNC-CH Student Body President Reeves Moseley said the board needs to balance “careful consideration” with “the urgency and momentum of the current moment” when making these decisions.
“We cannot change history,” Moseley said. “But, we can make changes now that foster an environment on this campus that allows for diversity, inclusion and success at every turn, because that is what will allow our students, faculty and community to thrive.”
Why change UNC building names?
In June, the UNC board lifted a 16-year moratorium on the renaming of buildings and historical places on campus, particularly those tied to a racist history. The board then started working on an official policy for the renaming process.
The decision came after nationwide protests, including at UNC-CH, against police brutality and systemic racism that also criticized Confederate monuments. There was also mounting pressure through online petitions and protests from students and faculty to lift the moratorium.
The new policy says that the names that UNC attaches to buildings and public spaces make a statement about “the values we wish to lift up for emulation and pass on to successive generations.” And as the nation’s first public university, UNC has a “responsibility to promote equal opportunity and equal access for all.”
The policy says the university “must be willing to submit our history and traditions to scrutiny and thoughtful assessment” and be open to change or contextualize names attached to campus buildings or public spaces that may “undercut Carolina’s mission.”
“Removing a naming designation is a serious step that cannot be taken lightly or hastily,” the policy says. “It should occur only under exceptional and narrow circumstances.”
History of controversial buildings’ namesakes
The request to remove the names Daniels, Carr, Ruffin and Aycock from buildings came from the university’s Commission on History, Race & A Way Forward.
The buildings are all named after men who “used their positions to impose and maintain violent systems of racial subjugation,” UNC history professor and commission co-chair Jim Leloudis said at a meeting last week.
▪ Aycock Residence Hall was named after former North Carolina Gov. Charles Aycock, a UNC alumnus who led a white supremacy campaign that targeted and suppressed black voters, The News & Observer previously reported. Several North Carolina universities — including Duke, East Carolina and UNC Greensboro — have already removed the Aycock name from campus buildings.
▪ The Daniels Building, which houses the UNC Student Stores, is named after former News & Observer publisher and lifelong white supremacist Josephus Daniels. N.C. State University recently removed the Daniels name from a campus building, following the lead of a Raleigh middle school and the removal of a statue of Daniels from downtown Raleigh last month.
In a presentation, Leloudis explained that Daniels helped shape the strategy for the Democratic Party’s white supremacy campaign of 1898 and used The News & Observer as a “propaganda arm of the party and used political cartoons and sensationalist reporting to demonize Black voters and politicians as a threat to whites.” Daniels also promoted Jim Crow segregation.
▪ The Carr building is named after Julian S. Carr, who gave a racist speech at the dedication of the controversial Silent Sam Confederate statue that stood on UNC’s campus before it was torn down by protesters in 2018.
Leloudis said Carr used his wealth and influence to establish the regime of Jim Crow, which denied Black North Carolinians equal justice and the fundamental rights of citizenship for more than 50 years. Carr also financed the Democratic Party’s white supremacy campaign of 1898 and supported the Ku Klux Klan, according to Leloudis.
▪ The dorm Ruffin Hall is named after former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin Sr. and his son Thomas Ruffin Jr. The elder Ruffin used his power to “normalize the violence inherent in slavery,” according to the commission’s presentation. He also enslaved 135 men, women and children in North Carolina and profited from the domestic slave trade.
What is the new policy?
Under the new policy, the chancellor or Board of Trustees can initiate the process of reconsidering the name on a UNC-CH building or other public space. A written request to the chancellor can also start the process.
That written request must include the following:
The specific conduct by the namesake of the campus building or public space that jeopardizes UNC’s integrity, mission or values.
The character of the individual and the extent of the harm to UNC caused by honoring that person.
The sources and strength of the evidence that supports those allegations of harm.
The allegation should be based on strong and clear scholarly historical evidence. It also should align with at least one of several principles, including that the individual committed a serious violation of a state or U.S. law, their “repugnant conduct” in question was central to their life, the honor jeopardizes the university’s integrity and that removing the name would not “stifle viewpoint diversity” or fail to acknowledge history or that person’s contributions as a whole.
The policy says the request is weaker if the person’s “offensive behavior or viewpoints were conventional at its time” and other aspects of their life are “especially noteworthy” to UNC or the community. It’s also weaker if that person’s views or behavior significantly evolved.
The chancellor will make or refer the written request to an appointed committee that includes members of the board, UNC alumni, faculty, staff and students. That committee will “investigate the claims and provide a written report back to the chancellor in a timely manner that adheres to the standards of free and open inquiry as well as discourse and debate, which are appropriate for an institution of higher education,” according to the policy.
The report could include input from the university community, including the original honoree or their heirs, and educate the public while addressing the wrongdoing.
The chancellor will review the report, scholarly historical evidence and the principles and can then make a formal request that the Board of Trustees remove the name and provide
The policy also notes that the chancellor and trustees will consider “opportunities for contextualization, education, and preservation of historical knowledge to advance the University’s mission and values” when making the decision. That could include a plaque with the former name of the building or public space and “illustrates the history in a way that educates.”
If the chancellor decides not to request the name change, he or she must provide an explanation to the group that asked for the change and can take action to add contextualization to that campus building or public space.
Other buildings to be considered
There are other buildings on campus that need to be changed, according to the commission. Students and faculty have identified about 30 places on the Chapel Hill campus dedicated to people involved in slavery or white supremacy.
The chairs of the Departments of History, Political Science and Sociology, and the Peace, War, and Defense Curriculum made an official request to the commission to rename UNC’s Hamilton Hall to Pauli Murray Hall. The group noted Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton’s role in shaping the university for the benefit of white supremacy.
The change would honor Pauli Murray, a Black descendant of one of the university’s original trustees, who was denied admission to a UNC Ph.D. program based on her race. Murray found success as a lawyer, activist and outspoken scholar who advocated for the rights of all members of society, the group said in a press release.
“Pauli Murray represents the immutable spirit of scholarship and public service, and she represents the forgone knowledge that UNC could have been a part of, could have supported and nurtured, and could have learned from,” the group wrote. “Naming our building after her will serve as a reminder of what was lost, what could have been, and what can be as we move forward.”
The commission said it plans to make additional recommendations in the future, which will now go through the process that the board outlined.
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 1:51 PM with the headline "UNC trustees approve new policy to rename campus buildings that have ties to racism."
