Inadmissible
UT Dorm Renamed
In a unanimous July 15 decision, the University of Texas System board of regents approved a new name for the Simkins Residence Hall on the UT-Austin campus. Acting on the recommendation of UT-Austin president William Powers Jr. , the board approved the name Creekside Residence Hall and Creekside Park for the dormitory and an adjacent park. In the 1950s, the university had named the dorm in honor of William S. Simkins , a Texas lawyer who helped establish the Florida chapter of the Ku Klux Klan following the American Civil War. Simkins was a professor at the University of Texas School of Law from 1899 until his death in 1929. According to the UT system news release announcing the name change, the park next to the dorm was named for Simkins’ brother, Eldred J. Simkins, a former UT system regent who also had ties to the KKK. The name of the dorm became an issue following the publication of a paper written by Tom Russell , a former UT law professor who now is a professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law . The Social Science Research Network published Russell’s paper in March. Russell says that when he wrote the paper, he didn’t expect the dorm to be renamed. “When I wrote the paper, I hoped to provoke a conversation about race, history and law,” Russell says. “I guess I’d say I’ve succeeded beyond my wildest expectations.” Powers recommended the name change based on a recommendation by a 21-member advisory committee that conducted public hearings and studied the issue. UT system spokesman Matt Flores says, “The regents were persuaded that the university community had done their due diligence and came up with this recommendation.”
School District Upbraided
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