GCB, Rolla name changes discussed
April 6, 2007
ROLLA — A name change for the General Classroom Building might be realized after at least 18 years of petitions from students.
The UM system Board of Curators will vote today to approve a name change to Strickland Hall, named after Arvarh Strickland, the first full-time black faculty member at MU.
Strickland was a professor at MU for almost 20 years until his retirement in 1995.
He also served as an assistant to the chancellor and the vice chancellor.
In the committee meeting that unanimously approved the proposal for the vote, Curator Cheryl Walker said Strickland was mentioned in a recent issue of Mosaic Magazine in an article about 100 years of history and diversity.
"I'm really excited about this for a host of reasons," she said.
The Missouri Students Association, the Residence Halls Association and the Legion of Black Collegians all passed joint resolutions advocating the name change. It was the first time the three student governments worked together to pass a resolution.
But this is not the first movement to rename GCB.
In 1989, then-MSA president A.J. Schnack considered changing the name to Martin Luther King Hall. Because King did not attend MU or make financial contributions like other minority figures did, that proposal never made it to the Board of Curators.
In a previous Maneater report, RHA Vice President Nate Ballance said because Strickland is still alive, he was allowed to choose the building to be named after him.
MSA, LBC and RHA have also discussed changing the name of College Avenue Hall and Brady Commons.
GCB isn't the only name change to be voted on tomorrow. UM-Rolla, where the meetings will occur, could change its name to Missouri University of Science and Technology pending approval by the board.
One student came to the meeting to protest the name change with hand-painted signs he made 10 minutes earlier.
UMR Chancellor John Carney said in a speech to the External Affairs Committee that the existing name is holding Rolla back in its national recognition as a school of science. He said he surveyed students, alumni, community leaders, high school guidance counselors and higher education corporate recruiters.
Of those surveyed, 70 percent of alumni, 65 percent of faculty, 62 percent of staff and 48 percent of students approved of the name change, Carney said.
The graduate students were more in favor of the name change than undergraduates, with only 46 percent of undergraduates being in favor, compared with 56 percent of graduate students.
Carney said the older the alumni, the more likely they were to favor the name change.
UMR junior Mark Wagner said he came to protest the name change because it doesn't adequately address the problem.
"It could be called Rolla, Missouri S&T or The Missouri Awesome School for Cool, and people still wouldn't know about it," he said.
Wagner said he thinks the school should focus on spreading the word through avenues like sending more literature to high schools.
"They're wasting resources," he said.
He said he thought most students agree with him.
Carney said he thinks because most undergraduates are not from Missouri, they don't realize the school's reputation, or lack thereof, in other areas. He said the name change would not affect the school's programs related to the arts.
"The humanities and arts and sciences will continue to be an important part of this institution," Carney said. "Enrollment in these departments has continued to grow and will do so."
The curators will vote on both name changes today.
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