New Inclusive History Project task force develops methods for honorific namings of U-M sites

The Inclusive History Project, founded in 2022 as an avenue for examining and evaluating the University of Michigan’s history, has created a task force to develop new procedures for the honorific naming of U-M spaces and sites. The task force is co-chaired by Earl Lewis, Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor, and Kristen Hass, professor of American culture, and includes representatives from each campus. 

In its 2023-2024 year end report, the IHP recommended to University President Santa Ono that a task force be formed to examine and assess the methods of naming sites on the University’s campus, which Ono accepted. 

According to the report, the existing guidelines for naming campus facilities, spaces and streets –– originally implemented by the Board of Regents in 2008 and updated regularly over the years –– does not provide detailed instructions for honorific naming. The IHP report calls for more clearly defined procedures regarding the topic.

The University Board of Regents’ 2008 Facilities, Spaces, and Streets Naming Policy, which is still in use and will be examined by the task force, specifies four reasons a space or building may be named after someone: to recognize financial contributions toward that specific structure, to recognize a donor for their extended and significant financial contributions to the University, to honor those who have made “exceptional contributions” to the University and to celebrate the University’s history and traditions.

In a University Record article, Hass explained the nature of the task force’s work to redefine the procedures surrounding the naming of spaces in order to ensure those with a large impact on the campus community are properly recognized.

“This task force aims to help the University to consider more deeply who is valued on our campuses via honorific naming by clarifying the principles and processes that lead to new honorific namings,” Hass said.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Lewis said honorific names are important because of what they can mean for a community. He addressed several questions that the task force will face in its upcoming meetings about what honoring a person means to the University.

“Buildings and naming are symbolic gestures about the importance of an individual or a collection of individuals at a particular moment in an institution’s history,” Lewis said. “The fact that those names can exist for years or decades or even centuries invites a question about, do we still have the same kind of attachment to that individual, or a collection of individuals, and what made them notable at their time? Are they still notable? Should those names remain?”

While the IHP report recommended that Ono re-examine the names of currently existing buildings and spaces, the new IHP task force will only focus on recommendations for the future. Lewis told The Daily he hopes the University community will care about this initiative and its impact.

“I would hope that the community would think that it’s important for us all to reflect on whose name goes on a building, whether that individual in all his or her attributes speak to the values of the institution going forward,” Lewis said. “Hence, we hope and believe that students, faculty, alums and other stakeholders will at some point want to both pay attention and perhaps even weigh in as they think about what should be the guiding principles as we think about honorific land naming in the future.”

In an interview with The Daily, Education and LSA junior Eric Veal Jr, speaker of the Central Student Government Assembly and a student on the task force, stressed the significance of thoughtful naming practices. 

“I think it is imperative to think and look at the contributions of all people on our campus and to make sure that we’re honoring people and taking the time to actually have thoughtful conversations around what buildings we’re naming or who we’re giving homage to,” Veal Jr. said.

In 2022, The Daily reported on the gender and racial breakdown of building names on campus. Of 103 buildings, only one was named after a person of Color and only 12 were named after women. Veal Jr. underscored how inclusive naming can foster a sense of community among students. 

“I think it can have the effect to make sure that students are able to see buildings named after people that look like them,” Veal Jr. said. “Having that opportunity to walk around campus and have that sense of belonging, even in the name, is really important to me.”

Daily Staff Reporter Grace Schuur can be reached at gschuur@umich.edu.

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