The E.H. Hereford University Center sits Oct. 18 on West First Street. The center offers students, faculty and visitors dining options, event rooms and more.
The debate over the name of the University Center spans almost a decade.
For about eight years, students have held demonstrations and met with
university leaders to protest the building’s designation after former UTA President Ernest H. Hereford.
A new effort to push for a name change recently took place. The Student Senate approved Resolution 26-11, “A Center for Every Maverick,” which passed unanimously, according to previous Shorthorn reporting.
Community Affairs chair Jaysen Johnson, who helped draft the resolution, said the University Center is vital to campus, and its name should reflect every student who frequents the space.
During Hereford’s tenure, he allegedly allowed multiple racist activities on campus, including blackface, allowing a student organization to operate under the name Kampus Kadet Klub and sanctioning the Confederate flag as the university’s symbol, according to previous Shorthorn reporting.
The resurfacing of some videos of these acts prompted the Student Senate to act.
Student Body President Andres Morales said he was recently sent a large number of videos and reels about events targeted toward students of color during Hereford’s presidency.
“I was like, ‘OK, well, this is now really becoming a really big student issue. Let’s be the administration that can make the change,’” he said.
When Morales put forth the issue, he worked with fellow students of color to write the resolution. Everyone was on board with the potential resolution to create a referendum for students to vote on, he said.
“A referendum now has a stronger voice because it’s coming from the student body itself,” Morales said. “A referendum has a lot more power and a lot more backing, so when you present this to the system, it’s not just Student Governance wanting this; now it’s more student body focused.”
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?”
If the referendum passes the student vote, the results will be transferred to the university administration. From there, it would go to the UT System Board of Regents, according to previous Shorthorn reporting.
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, Johnson said, who also serves as a College of Liberal Arts senator. Under current UT System Board of Regents rules, that was not possible.
The system states that a building cannot be named after a person until at least five years after their retirement or death.
Throughout the years, various students have tried to tackle the issue of the namesake.
Mark Napieralski, alumnus and former Progressive Student Union president, led past efforts to protest the former president’s namesake and bust in the center.
In 2022, Resolution 22-16, “Removal of E.H. Hereford from the UC,” authored by Napieralski, aimed to strip Hereford’s namesake and bust from the UC. Napieralski had proposed a similar resolution in 2018, using much of the same language, according to previous Shorthorn reporting.
Chief of Staff Trevor McCullough said Hereford’s name isn’t carrying much weight or interest.
“No one calls it, ‘Oh, we’re going to Hereford for dinner.’ They say, ‘Let’s go to UC,’” McCullough said. “We felt just calling it the University Center, which reflected its everyday usage was the best fit.”
Johnson saw the center’s renovation and construction as an opportune time to bring the resolution back up.
“We all believed that with this new change coming with the UC, and quite a big change too, that it was appropriate to try to see where this could go,” he said.
If approved by the university administration, the referendum will be placed on the spring 2027 student election ballot.
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