Eastern’s Naming Committee met Thursday to begin discussing potential names for a Douglas Hall rename.

Following the naming committee’s recommendation in April to University President David Glassman to rename Douglas Hall, the committee will now find a name or list of names to recommend for a rename.

Ex-offico convener of the Naming Committee Ken Wetstein, vice president for university advancement, began the meeting by explaining the naming process to the committee, specifically the guidelines the committee should consider when making a recommendation:

1. Personal, place, or functional names may be recommended for facilities.
2. The recommended name shall be logical in terms of the function of the facility.
3. The recommended name shall have some significance to and meaning for constituencies served by the facility and/or significance to and meaning for the University as a whole.
4. The recommended name shall be consistent with the guidelines provided in the Board of Trustees Regulations cited above.
5. There shall be a relationship between the magnitude of the contribution of that person to the University and the facility–e., major building names should be reserved for those individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement and welfare of the institution.
6. At least two years shall pass after the employee’s termination of regular employment, retirement, or death before consideration is given to naming a facility for that individual.

Suzie Park, a professor of English and presidential appointee to the committee, will serve as chair of the naming committee for this academic year.

Park was not a member of the committee when the decision was made to recommend a name change, but she said she has been catching up on what the committee did.

She said she is interested in focusing on combining the third and fifth guidelines for the committee to find possible names, saying if there is a way to tie in a financial contribution with the rename.

“You know (students living in the hall are) becoming individuals, they’re becoming persons, and so the personhood represented by the name of the building is quite important … I think the person who has the best financial interests of the students at heart would be a good way to go. If there’s some possibility of big bucks going towards the welfare of the students, tying it to that (should be considered),” Park said.

She added that the name should reaffirm the values of the university.

Committee members briefly shared some ideas of individuals that the building could be named after like Judge David Davis, Barack Obama and Jimmy Garoppolo.

This year, the members of the committee are Steven Scher (Faculty Senate), Angie Campbell (Staff Senate), Diane Burns (Council of Chairs), Rick Wilkinson (Council on Academic Affairs), Billie Frazier (Student Senate), Park (presidential appointee) and Mona Davenport (presidential appointee).

Scher was not in attendance at the beginning of the meeting but joined the committee after they began discussing the topics of the meeting

Frazier was not in attendance for the entirety of the meeting due to a scheduling conflict.

The date of the next meeting was not set during the meeting Thursday. The committee will schedule its next meeting after Glassman forwards them his list of names to review.

Recommendations can be made using a link sent to the campus community in an email from Glassman. Submissions will be accepted until accepted through October 29.

Corryn Brock can be reached at 581-2812 or at deneic@gmail.com.