University Policy on Naming Buildings

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees Committee on General Policy on January 8, 1943, the Committee made the following recommendations, which were adopted at the Boards general meeting on January 23, 1943:[1]

The Committee recommends that the following policies be established for the future in recognizing distinguished persons connected with the University by giving their names to buildings, campus areas, streets and drives, etc.

a. Such recognition shall be restricted to the names of persons who are deceased.

b. Recognition of former presidents shall be in the form of the naming of campus areas.

c. Buildings of all kinds may be named only for distinguished persons who have been officially connected with the University and who were prominent in the field for which the building so named is used.

d. Drives, streets, walks, etc., may be named for other distinguished persons who have been officially connected with the University.

The Committee recommends that all previous conflicting actions and statements of policy be amended to conform with these policies. In making these recommendations, the Committee has no intention of restricting the naming of any building, area, etc., for donors who may give such things to the University.

The naming policy evolved over the years, and by 1962 the policy had been revised to: [2]

a) Buildings given to the University may be named for the donors of funds for the same, or for donors whose individual contributions have been crucial in the financing of such buildings.

b) Buildings should be named in such a way as to denote their general use as a matter of convenience to students as well as to visitors, except as provided for in (d), below.

c) Residence halls may be named for donors of funds for such halls; for distinguished former members of the Board of Trustees; and for distinguished members of the University faculty, especially those who were identified with some phases of student life outside the classroom.

d) Buildings and other campus facilities may be named for former members of the University faculty, or for others in the public life of the state or nation.

e) Except as provided for in (a) or (c) above, buildings and other campus facilities shall not be named for living persons.

f) Plaques or tablets may be installed in buildings as memorials to or in recognition of distinguished members of the University staff whose services were identified with the functions of said buildings.

g) The designation of names of buildings, streets, and drives shall be exclusively within the authority of the Board of Trustees.

As policies continued to evolve, the Board eventually changed its policies on naming buildings only after deceased persons [3] and on March 12, 1987, the David Dodds Henry Administration Building became the first building on campus to be named after a living person. [4]