A committee for the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education has hit the pause button on UND's plans to rename the J. Lloyd Stone House.
UND had proposed changing the name of the campus building to the Dr. Kathleen and Hal Gershman Engagement Center.
Earlier this year the Gershmans donated $3 million to make renovation of the building possible. The building was the original president's home and built in 1903. The name change is meant to honor the Gershmans' gift.
However, during the board's budget and finance committee meeting late Tuesday members questioned whether the Stone family had been contacted about the potential name change.
Member Dan Traynor said while he has nothing against the Gershmans, it's important for the university to be in contact with families before bringing the issue in front of the board. He added that this is not the first time this has happened with UND, noting this has also come up with the Ray Richards family and the family of Ralph Engelstad.
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Jed Shivers, vice president for finance and operations at UND, noted that the committee was supportive of the renaming of the Stone House, but they wanted to ensure UND was going through the right channels to do so.
Shivers said that DeAnna Carlson Zink and the UND Alumni Association and Foundation had already been attempting to contact the Stone family long before the item was brought before the committee, but has yet to be successful.
Stone led the Alumni Association from 1946 to 1974 and died in 2001. Shivers said the naming of the building after Stone was originally honorific rather than through a donation, which means there are not donor intent stipulations. He noted that the university still wants to honor the Stone name in some way, whether it's somewhere in the building or through a different means.
"We want to work on a way to honor his memory and the contributions that he made," he said, noting that when the Strinden Center came down the university renamed the street next to the Gorecki Alumni Center after him.
Shivers said the foundation will continue trying to contact the Stone family before moving forward with the potential renaming.
The item was postponed until the next committee meeting.
The committee-which includes Traynor, board vice chair Nick Hacker and Casey Ryan, as well as nonvoting member Andy Wakeford-makes recommendations to the main board.
