By Molly Ashline, Staff Writer

Published in print Oct. 29, 2014

The opinions surrounding the Aycock auditorium may soon become more serious.

Aycock Auditorium was named for Governor Charles B. Aycock who served in office from 1901-1905.

He earned this monument of legacy by expanding education within the state of North Carolina, but his name faces removal because his views on race. In modern terms, Gov. Aycock was a bigot.

He was “inextricably associated with the disenfranchisement of black voters” according to Duke University’s website.

Duke’s Board of Trustees restored one of its residence halls —which displayed Aycock’s name for a number of years—back to its original name of East Residence Hall in July of this year.

The change at Duke has since been an impetus for the discussion of similar changes at UNCG and at other universities in North Carolina.

According to Bonita Brown, who has been a Vice Chancellor and Chief of Staff at UNCG for four years, altering the name of Aycock Auditorium is anything but a one-sided matter.

In an interview with Carolinian staff writer, Emily Bruzzo, Brown said, “How do you respect the things that he did for education and the things that he did for the state in general…how do you balance that with those other actions, which…reviewing our history was a sign of the times back then?”

During the interview, Vice Chancellor Brown also referenced the University Naming Policy as a guideline for the process of changing the name of a university building.

A clause within the University Naming Policy could lend Brown’s words some credence. Within the naming criteria, this statement is found: “Naming a facility or unit should be undertaken discreetly, advisedly and with concern for how the action will be viewed retrospectively in subsequent decades.”

It is likely that those who named Aycock Auditorium many years ago assumed that Gov. Aycock’s legacy would not be tarnished by his racist views, because his views were highly accepted by the white elite at the time. The status quo from a hundred years ago has shifted.

It is now the responsibility of students and faculty at UNCG to decide what that shift will mean for Aycock Auditorium.

Is it better to leave a landmark of campus the way it is, especially considering that most students do not know the infamy of Charles B. Aycock?

Or does it stand in the way of principle and diversity to allow the name of a man without concern for the latter to remain on one of the most integral buildings on UNCG’s campus?

What will changing the name accomplish for the university as a whole?

Brown hopes that any decision reached will be done with the involvement of many students.

Brown mentioned websites or student forum that may be organized in order to get a consensus opinion of the matter of Aycock Auditorium.

The Board of Trustees must approve any proposal submitted before the façade can be altered.

Until then, the name remains the same.