The building and place name review process grew out of community concerns regarding the names of several buildings on OSU’s Corvallis campus, namely Arnold Dining Center, Avery Lodge, Benton Hall and Annex, and Gill Coliseum. There is evidence to suggest that the namesakes of these buildings may have held or espoused racist or exclusionary views. Some community members have asked that the university to rename these buildings or otherwise address the legacy of their namesakes.
Given these concerns, a committee was charged with developing a renaming request evaluation process to consider how the university responds when the viewpoints or actions of a building or place namesake do not align with OSU’s mission and values. Importantly, the committee was not charged with making a final determination regarding the names of these specific buildings, but rather, to envision a process by which the names of all university buildings and places can be evaluated.
The five buildings currently under consideration are: