Cultural Genocide in Texas's Higher Ed System
Naming the Forty Acres: The shifting politics of UT building names
Naming the Forty Acres: The shifting politics of UT building names
(It ain’t like this is something new. This has been going on since back when crawdad sebesta was sucking air and preaching his anti-Southern hatred to the joyous acclaim of leftist academics shielding themselves in Texas universities. - DD)
(Daily Texan) - A large, rectangular block of limestone sits on the north side of campus, plain and heavy against Speedway. Students know the building as the Physics, Math and Astronomy building. But before 2020, the building was called something else.
When the building was first constructed in 1972, it was named after Robert Lee Moore, a former UT math professor. In 2020, the UT System Board of Regents voted to change it to the PMA due to Moore’s controversial views, namely his outspoken support for segregation.
A short stroll away, other names like Painter and Littlefield remain on UT buildings. These names, though printed on maps and syllabi for years, have been surrounded with controversy because of ties to their historical namesakes.
All naming decisions go through the UT System Board of Regents. During the University’s early days, the board named buildings based on the academic purposes they served, said Jim Nicar, a UT historian and author of the UT History Corner. The campus was filled with functional labels: a Main building, a chemistry building and a law building, Nicar said.
A functional name wasn’t intended for honorifics, meaning they didn’t require explanation or defense, Nicar said. In this “boring” naming era is one exception…