Residence Hall Renaming Timeline
The Residence Hall Association (RHA) and Carolina Housing have been dedicated to addressing Residence Hall names so they better align with the department’s mission to create a space that is safe and inclusive, especially in light of racial justice.
During the Summer of 2020, the 2019-2021 RHA President, Kira Griffith, was heavily involved in the process to remove the first four building names on campus and consider ways to go about re-naming. This partnership will continue to build and evolve in the future. Feel free to visit Carolina Housing’s website for more information.
| June 2020
UNC Board of Trustees votes to lift moratorium on building name removals. See more information here. |
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July 16, 2020
UNC Board of Trustees creates a Name Removal Policy. |
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July 21, 2020 Chancelor-appointed committee (which included RHA President Kira Griffith) begins reviewing first four building names (Aycock, Carr, Daniels, Ruffin). Read more about it here. |
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July 29, 2020 UNC Board of Trustees votes to remove first 4 building names. See more info here and view the Daily Tarheel Article here. |
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November 2020 Chancellor appoints Honorific Naming Committee (the 2nd of the two committees RHA President Kira Griffith sat on) to review the existing naming policy and make revisions. |
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Spring 2021 RHA begins to solidify relationship with Commission on History, Race, and A Way Forward. The two organizations collaborate on Social Justice events and town halls. |
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March 23, 2021 Joint RHA/Carolina Housing Renaming Committee convenes to discuss approach to re-naming of residence halls. |
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March 26, 2021 Chancellor calls on community to submit names to consider for re-naming. |
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April 9, 2021 Joint Town Hall between RHA & Commission on History, Race, and A Way Forward (part of our educational work for students on the process of name removal & renaming). See YouTube video recording here. |
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April 10th, 2021
Chancellor Guskiewicz responds to RHA and Housing’s joint statement (published April 9th, 2021) regarding potential name submissions for Residence Hall 1, thanking RHA student leaders and reassuring that the suggested names would be considered. View the joint statement here.
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October 19th, 2021 Elli Alexander, 2021-2022 RHA president, is appointed on the Chancellor’s committee to review history to review dossiers on potential building name removals.
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December 3rd, 2021 The University announces that Residence Hall One has been renamed after Hortense McClinton, the first Black professor hired at Carolina. Read the Daily Tarheel Article Here.
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February of 2022 The Residence Hall Renaming Committee operated a survey to examine the impact of building names connected to slavery, the Confederacy, and white supremacy on student wellbeing at UNC. 1,303 students responded, of which 1,200 lived on campus. This survey was used to generate a report, which informed the Chancellor’s Committee. |
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May 13, 2022 Residence Hall 1 (formerly Aycock Residence Hall) is officially renamed in honor of Professor Hortense McClinton and the Student Affairs building (formerly Carr Building) is renamed in honor of Henry Owl. Alexandra Love, a member of the Residence Hall Renaming Committee and a former resident of Residence Hall 1, spoke at this event. Read the article here.
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June 11, 2022 The RHRC published its report to the Chancellor’s Committee. This report analyzed survey results to demonstrate the disparate negative impact of these building names on marginalized students. The report aimed to increase understanding of the ways in which residence hall names connected to slavery, the Confederacy, or upholding white supremacy “demonstrably jeopardize[] the University’s integrity and materially impede[] its mission of teaching, research, and public engagement; or significantly contributes to an environment that excludes some members of the University community from opportunities to learn, thrive, and succeed”, per the BOT policy for the consideration of the removal of names. See the report here. |
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October 6, 2022 The Chancellor’s Committee to Review History, Race, and a Way Forward Dossiers provided their final recommendations to the Chancellor. The group ultimately recommended that 8 of the 10 building names put forward be removed. The committee reached a “consensus recommendation” on removing the names William Waightstill Avery (Avery Residence Hall), Robert Hall Bingham (Bingham Hall), John Washington Graham (Graham Residence Hall), Bryan Grimes Jr. (Grimes Residence Hall), Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton (Hamilton Hall), Cameron A. Morrison (Morrison Residence Hall), James Johnston Pettigrew (Pettigrew Hall), and Zebulon Baird Vance (Vance Hall), and keeping the names Kemp Plummer Battle (Battle Hall) and Thomas Ruffin Jr. (Ruffin Residence Hall). |
What does the current name removal process look like?
The current process can be broken down into two parts: name removal and renaming.
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- Name removal
- The BOT policy on building name removal can be found here.
- The Commission on History, Race, and A Way Forward submits names to the Chancellor for removal.
- Technically, according to the policy, anyone can submit names for removal, but the Commission is specifically charged with this work & has an understanding of the quality of research needed to submit a robust proposal for name removal.
- The Chancellor then appoints a committee to review the dossiers submitted by the Commission on HRWF. This committee authors a report making recommendations to the Chancellor on name removal.
- The Chancellor uses this report to make his own recommendations to UNC’s Board of Trustees. The BOT takes the final vote.
- Renaming
- The current policy on naming can be found here. Former RHA President Kira Griffith was appointed to the Chancellor’s Honorific Naming Committee which was charged with revising this policy.
- Community members will receive an email with the link to submit names to consider. The most recent name submission form can be found here.
- The Chancellor & the Chancellor’s Naming Committee review the names & decide on which names they will use.
- The Chancellor brings this to the Board of Trustees which votes on approval of the names.
- Name removal
Questions or Comments?
Please reach out to the contacts below if you are interested in getting involved in the name removal/renaming process or have any comments!
Contacts:
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- RHA President – Liyah Smalls (tsmalls@unc.edu)
- RHA Executive Administrative Coordinator – Regan Rhymes (rrrhymes@ad.unc.edu)
- Commission on History, Race, and A Way Forward Committee Members:
- Dr. Jim Leloudis (leloudis@unc.edu)
- Dr. Patricia Parker (psparker@email.unc.edu)
- Carolina Housing: Associate Director for Assessment