History is at heart of renaming discussion

Historical context is key to understanding the lives of many people whose names adorn University buildings, members of a campus committee said Wednesday.

But members ultimately decided that they need further discussion before making a final decision to submit recommendations to Chancellor James Moeser.

The discussion was a key part in the meeting of Moeser’s advisory panel on naming University facilities and activities. The group is looking to revise its charter and the guidelines it will follow in making future decisions.

“How do you make judgements on people of the past?” said committee member John Sanders, former director of the Institute of Government. “We shouldn’t go back and apply our judgements.”

The revisions come after Moeser retired UNC’s most prestigious award for women, the Cornelia Phillips Spencer Bell Award, amid concerns that Spencer held white supremacist beliefs.

Moeser requested in February that the committee consider how UNC should treat historic names on campus. That request included suggestions from Charles Love, one of Spencer’s descendants, that the committee took up Wednesday.

Love outlined guidelines for looking at future historical figures; most centered on looking at an individual’s total legacy from historical and contemporary perspectives. “There’s no simple divide between right and wrong, good and evil,” Love wrote.

The committee discussed adopting a new section in its charter that would clarify the acceptable reasons for changing the name of a UNC facility, program or award.

The proposed addition would make it unacceptable to change a name based on modern standards when people’s actions were deemed OK during their own time.

UNC shouldn’t rename all its facilities simply because 21st-century people don’t agree with the personal actions of people who lived long ago, said Richard Richardson, former provost and chairman of the committee.

But other committee members wondered what would happen if future honorees had controversial backgrounds like Spencer’s.

George Lensing, professor of English, said slave owners weren’t exempt from moral scrutiny when they were alive. He said the original founders of the Bell Award looked beyond Spencer’s support of slavery.

Under the charter’s revision, UNC only could change the name of a building if it is demolished or if its namesake is guilty of an action that, if it had been known at the original naming, would have made it unfit for the honor.

Richardson said no one knows exactly what will be considered suitable in the future. “Two hundred years from now, members of the Naming Committee may find something wrong with us,” he said.

The committee will finalize changes at its next meeting in early May. The chancellor has ultimate approval power over the charter.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.