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William & Mary board recommends renaming residence halls after African American figures

Posted at 10:32 PM, Apr 26, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-26 22:32:54-04

james-setWILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The William & Mary Board of Visitors unanimously approved renaming two prominent residence halls in memory of two figures in the university’s African American history.

The board recommended that Jamestown North become Hardy Hall in honor of the late Carroll Hardy. Hardy was a longtime administrator in student affairs who made a huge impact on diversity at the school.

The board recommended that Jamestown South become Lemon Hall, named in memory of an enslaved man owned by William & Mary in the late 18th century and for whom the university’s Lemon Project is named.

The board also announced several other actions, including a $1 million commitment toward a hiring pool to improve diversity at William & Mary, $100,000 in staffing and operating funds for the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, additional training for faculty, staff and students and the hiring of an outside consultant to engage the community to better understand concerns of African-American employees.

An implementation team will be named soon to review all of the task force’s recommendations and develop a plan for future actions, said Chief Diversity Officer Chon Glover.

“Building names have meaning. It was long past time for African-Americans to be among those whose names grace major buildings on our campus,”said President Taylor Reveley. “It will be quite wonderful to have Lemon Hall and Hardy Hall in our midst.”

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