Charter of Chancellor's Committee on Naming University Facilities and Units

The Charter of The Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Naming University Facilities and Activities is rewritten to read as follows, effective upon its approval by the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees.

CHARTER OF

THE CHANCELLOR’S ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON

NAMING UNIVERSITY FACILITIES AND UNITS

Section 1. Establishment and source of authority.

Consistent with the Board of Governors’ Delegation of Duty and Authority to Boards of Trustees, which delegates for the Board of Trustees the authority to approve the names of all individuals and organizations on whom it is proposed that an honorary distinction be conferred by the University, and as a means of guiding the development of recommendations to the Board of Trustees for naming University facilities and units, the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Naming University Facilities and Units (hereinafter referred to as “the Committee”) is hereby established as a permanent committee.

Section 2. Organization.

a. Membership. The Committee shall consist of not fewer than six nor more than twelve members, the majority of whom shall be appointed from among current or former members of the University faculty and staff and current students, and all of whom shall be persons with a thorough knowledge of the University and a wide familiarity with the kinds of persons, families and organizations that are likely to be subjects of proposed naming actions.

b. Selection and terms. All members of the Committee shall be appointed by the Chancellor. Each member shall be appointed for a regular term of two years. Initial terms shall be so arranged that not all terms will expire in the same year. Each appointment to a regular term shall become effective on 1 July of the appropriate year. Each member shall serve for the term for which appointed and until a successor is appointed. A member who is appointed to fill a vacancy occurring before the expiration of a regular member shall serve for the remainder of that term. Any member may be appointed to serve successive terms.

c. Removal. The Chancellor may remove any member for inability or neglect of duty.

d. Chair. The Chair of the Committee shall be appointed by the Chancellor from the membership of the Committee and shall serve a term of one year. A Chair may be appointed to serve successive terms. In the absence of the Chair, the members of the Committee may elect one of their number to preside.

e. Secretary. The Secretary of the Committee shall be elected by the Committee and shall serve a term of one year. The Secretary may, but need not, be a member of the Committee. A Secretary may be elected to serve successive terms.

f. Assistance. The Committee may call upon any University employee for assistance in the performance of its duties.

Section 3. Functions of the Committee

a. Role. The Committee shall be a body advisory to the Chancellor and shall have no policy-making or administrative authority.

b. Duties. The Committee shall advise the Chancellor in confidence with respect to proposals to name or change the name of University facilities and units, consistent with the policy and procedures set out in Section 4, below.

c. Meetings. The Committee shall meet at such times and places as it finds the efficient performance of its duties to require. Meetings shall be called by the Chair or, on written request of any three members of the Committee, by the Secretary. A simple majority of the membership of the Committee shall constitute a quorum. All members present at the meeting may vote. No proxy shall be recognized in any meeting of the Committee.

Section 4. Policy and procedure with respect to naming facilities and units.

a. Subjects and standards for naming. It is the policy of the University that any facility or unit of the University not previously named may be named in consideration of 1) personal services rendered or financial contributions made to the University or 2) services rendered to society at large. For the purposes of this policy statement, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) “Program.” The naming of a program or activity that does not involve the facility or an organizational unit of the University is not ordinarily a concern of the Committee; however, the Chancellor may at any time see fit to refer to the Committee for its confidential advice to him a proposal to name a program or activity for a person or an organization.

(2) “Facility” means every building, addition to a building, space in a building, outdoor space (such as garden, court, or plaza), street, and other tangible and relatively permanent feature located on University property.

(3) “Unit” means every school, department, center, institute and other organizational entity of the University.

(4) “Personal service” means services rendered to the University as a student, faculty member, administrator, staff member, alumnus, trustee, or friend of the University that is substantial in character.

(5) “Financial contribution” means a contribution of money or property that is substantial in relation to the facility or activity being named.

(a) “Substantial” ordinarily means equal to not less than one-third of the cost of constructing or replacing the facility to be named.

b. Cautionary admonition. The act of naming a University facility or unit for a person, a family, or an organization is the conferral by the University a high and conspicuous honor. Ordinarily, it is a permanent act – as permanent as is the facility or unit to be named. That act enduringly praises the person, family, or organization so honored, and it perpetually exhibits to the world the judgment and standards of this University at the time of the act of naming as to the qualities and actions that justify linking the name of the person, family, or organization so honored with that of this institution. All who are involved in the act of naming a facility or unit must ever be aware that they are disposing of public property for the perpetual fame of the person, family, or organization being so honored. It follows that the act of naming a facility or unit is to be taken discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and with concern for how that action will be viewed in the retrospect of decades.

c. General policies. From the time of its founding, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has honored persons and organizations it thought worthy by erecting monuments to them; by naming buildings, spaces, and other physical facilities for them; and by naming University organizational units (professional schools and centers, for example) for them. It has honored the persons and organizations so memorialized for a variety of reasons: personal service to the University (as administrators, faculty members, staff members, and trustees, for example); for financial and property gifts to the University; and for other exemplary public service.

Those honors have been granted by the Board of Trustees or upon its delegation by other agencies or officers, chiefly the Chancellor. They have been granted in the exercise of the judgment of the granting agency, necessarily acting in the light of its own understanding of the facts and the standards of its own time and in good faith, and with appropriate consideration of all it knew about the person or organization so honored. Each of those acts of recognition was the act of the University at the time made, and thereafter it represents the judgment and act of the University in the context of its time.

With the passage of time, the standards and achievements deemed to justify a naming action may change. Observers of a later age may deem those who conferred a naming honor at an earlier age to have erred, because the designation is one that the latter-day observers would not have made and may consider to have been based on flawed judgment.

Those earlier judgments reflect their times, as the designs of our buildings reflect their times. They should not be altered simply because later observers would have made different judgments. The interests of the University require that there be stability in naming honors, once conferred. Rescission of a naming honor shall occur only upon the initiative of the Board of Trustees.

The following policies shall govern the conferral of naming honors:

(1) In recommending the conferral of a naming honor on a person, family, or organization, the Advisory Committee shall evaluate the whole legacy of that person, family, or organization on the basis of standards relevant to the honoree’s own time. In the case of historical persons or entities, it is constructive also to view the proposed naming by our contemporary standards to ensure that the naming is appropriate.

(2) When a building, other structure, street, space or other unit that has been named is eliminated, the Naming Committee shall attempt to provide for the appropriate perpetuation of the name.

(3) Ordinarily, the conferral of a naming honor is permanent. In appropriate instances, however, a naming may be granted for a fixed term, at the end of which the name of the facility or unit shall expire and may be renewed with the same or a new name, to be conferred in the same manner as the original name was conferred.

d. Chancellor’s responsibility. Subject to the responsibilities of the Board of Trustees, the Chancellor shall have responsibility and authority with respect to and is an essential participant in all naming actions. No facility or unit may be named without the early knowledge and prior approval of the Chancellor. The Chancellor shall endeavor to determine that the proposed action is consistent with the interests of the University, to assure that the amount of the contribution warrants the action proposed, and to maintain equity in the relationship of donations for similar naming actions.

e. Delay in certain naming actions. A facility, unit, or activity shall not be named for a person who is being honored chiefly or solely for services rendered as a faculty member, staff member, administrator, or trustee until that person (1) shall have been deceased for not less than one year or (2) shall have been retired or resigned from the regular service of the University for not less than one year. If a proposed naming is in response to a donation to the University, the requirement of a delay shall not apply.

f. Faculty consultation. When a facility or unit to be named is closely related to a school of department, the members of its faculty shall be consulted before the Chancellor or Board of Trustees acts on the naming proposal.

g. Benefits of contributions. When a facility or unit to be named is closely related to a school, department, or other unit, it will normally be expected that the financial contribution or contributions, if any, made or to be made in consideration of the naming action shall accrue primarily to the benefit of that school, department, or other unit. Financial contributions resulting in the naming of a school or college may be made to an affiliated foundation, but these contributions shall be invested in and managed by the University’s Investment Fund.

h. Procedure. Wherever a naming proposal may originate, it shall at the earliest feasible date be routed through the responsible Dean or equivalent officer and Vice Chancellor to the Chancellor, from the Chancellor to the Committee, from the Committee back to the Chancellor, and from the Chancellor to the Board of Trustees in those instances where action by that body is required. For academic units, the Chancellor shall also seek and receive the advice of the faculty of the school or department that is directly affected by the proposed naming action before acting on the proposal.

i. Transfer of donation. Where a facility or unit is to be named in consideration of a financial contribution, the money or other property shall be transferred to the University, or its future transfer shall be legally assured, before a naming action shall be taken.

j. Naming responsibility.

(1) The act of naming a building, an addition to a building, a significant interior space ordinarily accessible to the public, an outdoor space or a street shall be that of the Board of Trustees, acting after receiving the recommendation of the Chancellor.

(2) The act of naming a school, department, center, institute, or other unit shall be that of the Board of Trustees, acting after receiving the recommendation of the Chancellor.

Section 5. Effective date.

This charter shall become effective: June 8, 2006.

Chancellor