Notice and Comment Period for UT-Austin's Simkins Dormitory

The University of Texas-Austin's Office of the Vice-President for Diversity and Community Engagement has assembled an advisory group to investigate the proper response to Tom Russell's call for renaming Simkins dormitory.  They are inviting discussion from the community.  

The OVPDCE's website describes their project, "Simkins Residence Hall: Should it be renamed?" 

Since the publication of [Russell's] article, numerous stories and opinion pieces have appeared in the media about the naming of Simkins Hall. Some media outlets, including the Daily Texan, have called for renaming the hall.

The university is being deliberate in considering the renaming of Simkins Hall because renaming the residence hall will set a precedent. To date, no building at the university has been renamed or had a name removed. As reprehensible as Simkins’ KKK activities were, the building was legitimately named in the 1950s. At that time, based on recommendations of a special committee that focused on naming certain buildings, the Faculty Council voted to name the new hall for male law and graduate students for William Simkins.  As a result, we are required to make a careful examination to confirm the legitimacy of our actions, regardless of whether the name remains or is removed.

President Powers has charged Dr. Gregory J. Vincent, vice president for diversity and community engagement, with assembling an advisory group to make a recommendation regarding the renaming of Simkins Hall by the end of June. The ultimate decision to rename the hall lies with the Board of Regents.

The website also discusses UT's recent actions to make the campus an inclusive environment.  Then it has links to some works that may help the discussion.  In addition to Russell's paper and some other works on UT-Austin, they include several links related to Brown University's Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice:

Paper by Thomas D. Russell
Integrating the Forty Acres: A Fifty-Year Struggle for Racial Inequality at The University of Texas by Dwonna Goldstone
Creating an Inclusive Campus Environment for Cross Cultural Learning and Student Engagement
Panel Suggests Brown U. Atone for Ties to Slavery
Simmons Explains Why Brown U Won’t Apologize for Slavery
Brown University Committee on Slavery and Justice Reports

It's hard to know which way, if any, the committee is leaning.  They're certainly being very careful to talk about the precedent this might set.  What I hadn't focused on before was that the Faculty Council voted to name the building after Simkins.  Perhaps the Faculty Council should be involved in the current discussions.  What may have some significance here -- and what distinguishes this from, say, Confederate Memorial Hall on Vanderbilt's campus, is that the dormitory was named in honor of a faculty member, rather than as part of a gift to the University.

We'll see what happens.  Anyway, there's information on how to provide input here.

I may chime in at some point as well; I have a couple of papers on building names and apologies related to schools' connections to slavery.  One is about Justice Thomas Ruffin of North Carolina  and another is on President Thomas R. Dew of William and Mary.

Comments

[Houseofrussell]

Al,

Thanks for posting this item about the Texas Klan Controversy. I hope that some faculty loungers will take the time to visit the site and provide input to The University of Texas.

I'd like to add three things.

1. Regarding the Faculty Council, I discuss their role in my paper. A faculty council committee omitted Simkins's Klan past from their memorandum to the Faculty Council recommending that the dorm be named after Simkins. I show in the paper that the committee used the Handbook of Texas as a source regarding Simkins. There was a full paragraph on his Klan activity. The committee skipped that information when they relayed his name to the full Faculty Council. The committee whitewashed his past.

For us lawyers, that misrepresentation is enough to merit unnaming the dorm, in my view. As well, though, it should be a reminder to us all to take our committee work a bit more seriously. My suggestion for UT has been that President Powers simply take the name off the dorm and kick the matter to the Faculty Council.

2. I have collected most of the media stories and many of the blog entries regarding this matter at http://simkins.houseofrussell.com I'm adding a little bit of original material as well. Yesterday, for example, I posted Professor Simkins's will, which I just got from the Travis County Texas Probate Department.

3. In comments to news stories, many people have revealed that they think that many of the names on campus buildings are those of Klansman. This has caused me to start a collection of the names of Klansman for whom university buildings, auditoria, programs, etc. are named. At this point, I have four.

I believe Bibb Graves to have been a Klansman, and he has a slew of buildings in Alabama named for his as well as something at Bob Jone University. Also in Alabama, Theo Bilbo once had a residence hall at Pearl RIver Community College named after him; I am not sure that it is standing. Outside of Alabama, there is only Nathan Bedford Forrest Hall at Middle Tennessee State University and Simkins Dorm at Texas. (I should mention Sen. Byrd, too, because if I do not others will. Sen Byrd is a former, repentant Klansman for whom many things are named. I believe that repentance is meaningful, so I have no beef with him.)

So far as I know, the only Klansman/Professor for whom a university building is named is Simkins. Worthy of mention, too, is the University of Oklahoma which took a Klansman/Professor's name off the Chemistry building in the 1980s after students insisted when the administrators dragged their feet.

My question to the lounge is do you know of other university/college buildings that carry the names of Klansman? If so, please send them to me. (Note, too, that I'm not asking for the names of Confederates, slaveholders, racists, or bad guys--Just members of the KKK.) Please send them to [email protected] for my collection.

Finally, and more personally, I'd like to note what a great friend Al has been during this controversy. I've gotten a smaller share of hate mail than I expected, but even so, it has been very important to me to have someone's whose counsel I could seek.

Tom Russell
http://www.houseofrussell.com