The UNC Board of Trustees adopted a new policy for how the university will remove names from buildings and public spaces on its campus.

Following the lifting of a 16-year moratorium on renaming campus buildings at its last meeting, the board spent a portion of its meeting Thursday crafting a policy to establish how such building could be renamed. The university’s board passed the policy 12-1. Trustee John Preyer was the lone dissenting vote.

According to the policy, a reconsideration process for a building or public space name on campus can be instigated both by the board or from a written request to the UNC Chancellor. Submitted written requests for name removal should include specific conduct by the namesake “that jeopardizes the University’s integrity, mission or values.” In addition, requests should describe the individual’s character and how it harms the university to continue honoring the namesake, as well as the sources and strength of their evidence.

From there, the Chancellor will review the requests and refer them to a committee to be created specifically for investigating such claims. The committee will then determine whether the removal request should go to the Board of Trustees for consideration.

The board’s policy laid out its own determination process when reviewing removal requests, putting an emphasis on the need for the need for scholarly, historical evidence. The policy says the board will see the need for removal as stronger is the namesake was “found to have committed a serious violation of a state or U.S. law” or “the repugnant conduct in question was central to a namesake’s career, public persona or life as a whole.”

Other considerations for a compelling request are if honoring a namesake “demonstrably jeopardizes” UNC’s integrity and impedes its mission of teaching, research and public engagement. The board also listed whether a namesake contributes to an environment that excludes some members of the university community from “opportunities to learn, thrive and succeed.”

One of the policy’s final lines is that opportunities to contextualize, educate and preserve historical knowledge to advance UNC’s values must be considered when making a final determination on the potential removal or renaming of a university building or public space. Trustees discussed options like a display similar to what is in Carolina Hall, which was renamed from Saunders Hall, but did not make it a requirement for a removal.

The UNC Commission on History, Race and a Way Forward sent a resolution to Guskiewicz and the board following its own meeting last week, urging them to change four campus building names. The group submitted portfolios with historical evidence of white supremacy behind the namesakes of Aycock Residence Hall, Ruffin Residence Hall, the Carr Building and the Josephus Daniels Building.

Photo via UNC.

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