Xzavia Hall, chair of Academic Affairs, left, and Emman Khan, speaker of the Senate, listen during a Student Government meeting Oct. 13 at Trinity Hall. A student referendum will be placed on the spring 2027 election ballot if Resolution 26-11, “A Center for Every Maverick,” is implemented.
In its meeting Tuesday, the Student Senate voted on two resolutions and introduced three new ones.
Resolution 26-11, “A Center for Every Maverick,” which called for renaming the E. H. Hereford University Center, passed unanimously. If implemented, a student referendum will be placed on the spring 2027 election ballot.
According to the resolution, the referendum ballot will ask, “Should The University of Texas at Arlington formally initiate the process required to retire the E.H. Hereford honorific designation from the University Center, subject to all required University and The University of Texas System approvals?”
“I want to clarify that a referendum is not always about increasing fees,” said Jaysen Johnson, chair for community affairs and senator for the College of Liberal Arts, during the meeting. “A referendum can be simple, plain language to get students to vote on for an upcoming amendment.”
If the referendum were to pass, the results would be transferred to administration, and the next step for the possible renaming of the building would be to take it to the UT System Board of Regents, Johnson said.
Emman Khan, speaker of the Senate, speaks during a Student Government meeting Oct. 13 at Trinity Hall. Resolution 26-11, “A Center for Every Maverick,” passed unanimously.
A previous draft of the resolution called for the possibility of an honorific renaming of the UC with former UTA President Jennifer Cowley’s name replacing Hereford’s, but under current UT System Board of Regents rules that is not possible, Johnson said.
This is not the first time the removal of Hereford’s name has been put into a Student Senate resolution; a similar resolution failed to pass the Senate in 2023.
Hereford’s name was added to the UC in 1959, but he has remained a controversial figure in the school’s history.
He served as president of the university from 1949 until his death in 1958. In his tenure, Hereford allegedly allowed multiple racist activities to take place on campus and sanctioned the Confederate flag to be the university’s symbol, according to previous Shorthorn reporting.
In 2021, E. E. Davis Hall was renamed the University Administration Building following a vote by the UT System Board of Regents. Davis served as dean of the university from 1925 to 1946 and advocated for eugenics and racist policies.
Student Government members clap during a meeting Oct. 13 at Trinity Hall. The Senate voted on two resolutions and introduced three more.
The Student Senate had authored a resolution to rename the building in April 2020, according to previous Shorthorn reporting.
“We can’t control what happened in the past, but we can make some sort of impact for the future,” Johnson said.
Resolution 26-10, “Rev Up That Rivalry,” passed with 10 yeas, one nay and one vote abstaining. The resolution calls for the recognition of a sports rivalry between UTA and Tarleton State University, defining the week of Nov. 28 as “rivalry week.”
The first volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball games against the institution would be referred to as “the grudge match,” according to the resolution.
Resolutions 26-14, “Room to Lead”; 26-15, “Gimmie a Break”; and 26-16, “Freshman Mavericks Grade-Masking,” were introduced at the meeting.
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