Another group at Clemson University has taken a step to rename Tillman Hall, and this time, the formal request is coming from students.
Clemson’s Graduate Student Senate voted Thursday night to support renaming Tillman Hall, the most recognizable building on campus which was named for former South Carolina politician Benjamin Tillman.
A university spokeswoman said the Board of Trustees isn’t considering a proposal to rename Tillman Hall right now.
Tillman was instrumental in the school’s founding, but was also well-known for his racist speech and white supremacist ideals that were considered radical even in the post-Civil War time period in which he lived.
Ryan Heil, president of the Graduate Student body, said the Graduate Student Senate understood the significance of the vote they were taking on “a very important issue.”
“We’re making a statement as a graduate student body that this is something that we care about and we would like the university to address this aggressively,” Heil said.
With minorities and international students making up about 35 percent of the graduate student body, it was a very sensitive topic to many, Heil said.
Ryan Gagnon, a doctoral student in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, brought the resolution to the Senate after he researched Tillman.
“Tillman was an evil man and an avowed racist,” Gagnon said. “What’s ironic to me is that Tillman’s name is here when he was broadly opposed to any type of minority education.”
Gagnon said though the vote was just an initial step “we have to make a step forward before we make two steps forward.”
The renaming of Tillman Hall has become a touchstone issue at Clemson this semester after a group of students marched across campus on the first day of classes and presented a list of demands to Clemson’s administration, including a demand to rename Tillman.
POLL: Should Clemson rename Tillman Hall?
The vote was the first by a major organization at Clemson following the Jan. 7 march to Sykes Hall where a group of mostly minority students made its demands known.
Another major group on campus, Clemson Faculty Senate, had discussed and tabled a proposal to rename Tillman Hall on Jan. 13, which set off a firestorm of debate among members of the Clemson community.
The vote by the Graduate Student Senate means the school’s administration will have to address the question of Tillman Hall’s name.
The Senate acts as the official representative of graduate students to Clemson’s administration. It can appeal concerns of graduate students to the university administration.
The proposal will be sent to Clemson’s office of student affairs with the graduate student body’s request that the office advocate to the Board of Trustees on the students’ behalf, Heil said.
The Board of Trustees is the only group on campus that can choose whether to rename the building. It next meets on Feb. 5-6.
Cathy Sams, Clemson spokeswoman, said there is no proposal under consideration to rename Tillman Hall and it is not on the agenda for the upcoming board meeting.
“President Clements has outlined a long-term plan for enhancing diversity and inclusiveness, and that plan is being implemented,” Sams said. “For example, the first in a series of student dialogue luncheons was held this week, and reports are that it was a productive and positive discussion.”
Asked in an interview this week with The Greenville News whether he planned to address the Tillman Hall issue, Clemson President Jim Clements said he’s focused on strategic plans to expand diversity and make all students feel welcome.
“What I’m focused on are the bigger picture items,” Clements said. “So it’s not about one piece here or one piece there.”
Clemson is in the middle of a strategic planning process to look at what changes the school can make that’s best for a future of “inclusive excellence,” Clements said.
Any discussion is complicated by a state law that would require a two-thirds majority vote by the state Legislature to rename the historic building.
The move by student groups to demand school’s rename buildings on university campuses in the Southeast is beginning to gain traction.
Friday, a group of students at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill held a rally to demand the university rename Saunders Hall, home of UNC’s geography and religious studies programs, because its namesake, William Lawrence Saunders, was also thought to have been an organizer of the Ku Klux Klan in the Tar Heel State.
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