The Ohio State University Senate passed two resolutions Thursday to remove the Bricker name from the university administration building and to implement a standardized review process for campus building names. Credit: Christian Harsa | Asst. Photo Editor
The University Senate voted Thursday in favor of two resolutions to remove the Bricker name from the university administration building and for the University Senate to implement a standardized process for the renaming of university buildings, structures and entities on campus.
Undergraduate Student Government President Roaya Higazi said there were concerns that keeping the name of Bricker Hall would remember a racist legacy and history.
“It was the opinion of USG that there are a lot of folks at our university, historically and here today, who have had positive contributions to this university without creating active harm and that our university can honor them, but there is no reason for us to settle on someone who’s caused recorded and active harm against Black students and their pursuit of education,” Higazi, a fourth-year in city and regional planning, said.
John Bricker was the Ohio attorney general from 1933-37, governor of Ohio from 1939-45 and Republican senator from 1947-59. He graduated from Ohio State in 1916 and served on the Board of Trustees for more than two decades. Bricker Hall, originally the Administration Building, was renamed after him in 1983.
In 1932, Bricker defended the revocation of Doris Weaver’s reservation to use the Department of Home Economics’ residential laboratory because she was Black, according to university archives.
Weaver took the university to court in an attempt to be admitted to the Home Management House, the Department of Home Economics’ lab to “teach women students how to run an efficient home,” according to the University Archives. In the original court’s decision, it was established that Weaver was not denied educational advantages and was granted the same privileges as other students.
The court also required the university to show why Weaver was not admitted to the house. It was Bricker who crafted the answer, claiming it was not under the universities’ authority to urge students of different races and nationalities to room together, according to the Ohio State library’s archives.
The version of the resolution approved by USG favored renaming the building after Weaver; the University Senate version did not. In an interview with The Lantern March 9, University President Kristina M. Johnson said Ohio State is finalizing a process to evaluate and rename campus buildings.
Jacob Chang, USG president-elect, said the resolution is a stepping stone for the university to continue to uphold the values of diversity, inclusion and equity in its operations.
“For me, it’s historical,” Chang, a third-year in psychology and political science, said. “I feel the power behind it that our university takes active actions to review names like Bricker Hall. This is just a start.”
Action items from the University Senate are subject to approval by the University Board of Trustees, which is next scheduled to meet in May.
