FSU Naming Committee saves seat for ‘ethnic or racially diverse’ alumnus

Doak will be rocking for Black Friday.

Florida State University’s Board of Trustees has amended university policy to reserve a seat on the university’s Committee on Campus Names for an alumnus with an “ethnic or racially diverse background.”

The reserved spot is meant to “increase racial and ethnic diversity” on the committee, according to a document outlining the change drafted by FSU’s University Advancement Committee. The board authorized this change at its meeting Friday.

The naming committee, which consists mostly of university administrators and some student and faculty government representatives, advises university officials on whether proposed names for new university buildings, structures and rooms meet university guidelines.

The decision came after public pressure to rename a prominent FSU building last year. Former FSU linebacker Kendrick Scott launched an online petition calling for the renaming of Doak S. Campbell Stadium. The petition garnered nearly 5,000 signatures.

Campbell was FSU’s President from 1941 to 1957 and spearheaded the stadium’s construction. He was also a segregationist who opposed integration at FSU, even after Brown v. Board of Education made segregation in public schools illegal in 1954.

In his petition, Scott argued that “his (Campbell’s) noninclusive views of blacks as a segregationist is divisive, therefore his name should be removed from a stadium that has been home to many Black football players helping to build the school and the tradition to what it has become today: a national treasure.”

An FSU anti-racism task force voted against changing the stadium’s name in April, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. Scott was critical of the task force in an email to Florida Politics, arguing that Black former FSU football players should have played a bigger role in the decision-making.

“It speaks to the more significant issue that once you are a football player — you will continue to be viewed in this manner instead of respect given to our intellectual capital and acumen to make important decisions that affect us,” Scott wrote in the email.

Scott called the change to the naming committee a “mere Band-Aid” that could mean nothing if the person appointed shares the same viewpoints as people on the board.

“If you appoint an alumnus who cannot speak truth, it does not matter their color or ethnic background, then it is a façade. As a professor, I often lecture to my students that diversity of thought is also important,” he wrote.

While the naming committee acts in an advisory role in namings, it does not make final decisions. The committee can only advise the vice president for University Advancement, who then makes recommendations to the President of the university. Some decisions, like naming entire buildings, must then go to the Board of Trustees for final approval.

A slew of new namings could be on the committee’s desk at the start of next year.

FSU’s student union construction is slated to be completed in March 2022. The university is currently soliciting donations for naming opportunities of prominent rooms inside the building.