Renaming Criteria

A full evaluation of renaming requests will be based on the question: Should a building be renamed because the “context” of an individual’s life and legacy is inconsistent with OSU’s contemporary mission and values?

“Context” is evaluated by:

  • Actions taken by an individual vs. viewpoints held by an individual – typically, actions taken to advance racist or exclusionary viewpoints are considered more severe than holding racist or exclusionary viewpoints alone
  • The individual's public vs. private persona – typically, actions taken or viewpoints held as part of an individual’s public persona are considered more severe that actions taken or viewpoints held as part of an individual’s private persona
  • The progression of an individual’s viewpoints and life as a whole – typically, where an individual attempted to redress or rectify racist or exclusionary viewpoints or actions later in life, this is considered less severe than consistently acting on or holding racist or exclusionary viewpoints throughout life
  • Whether and how an individual’s actions and viewpoints corresponded to OSU’s mission and OSU’s and society’s values at the time – OSU’s mission and OSU’s and society’s values have changed over time. In some circumstances, an individual’s racist or exclusionary views may have aligned or been supported by the institutional and societal values of the time. How these value systems interacted should be considered in evaluating the “context” of an individual’s life.
  • How the current OSU community engages with the “context” of an individual’s life – the “context” of an individual’s life will resonate differently with different community members. As an institution, we must be able to engage in difficult but constructive conversations around difference in opinion regarding the “context” of an individual.

Overall, consideration of “context” as part of a renaming request must acknowledge and engage with the complexity of an individual’s life and the time in which the individual lived. People are complex. Viewpoints and actions are complex. Society and institutions are complex. Reducing an individual’s life to “bad” or “good” denies us the inquiry necessary to acquire understanding and engage in informed restoration.

By examining the “context” of an individual's life as a university community, we can examine the viewpoints and actions of an individual, and the university's values, practices and policies that may have enabled or supported racist or exclusionary views.

If a renaming request satisfies the evaluation criteria:

  • If a decision is made to change the name of a building, OSU will engage in a process to select a new name for the building. Additionally, the university will create permanent educational information so that current and future community members will be able to learn about the building’s previous name and namesake, how and why the decision to change the building’s name was made, and why the new name was chosen. This permanent education could be in the form of a plaque, exhibit, website or other mediums.

If a renaming request does not satisfy the evaluation criteria:

  • If a decision is made to not change the name of a building, the name of the building will remain, but the university will create and place permanent educational information so that current and future community members will be able to learn about the building’s name and history of its namesake, why the name was evaluated, and why a decision was made to leave the name. This permanent education could be in the form of a plaque, exhibit, website or other mediums.