Robert Lee Moore and Jim Bob Moffett Buildings

This final stop considers two of the remaining buildings on campus named after controversial figures, one overtly racist. It highlights the campus-wide changes in the naming practices of buildings from University members and officials to donors. A brief look at the individuals behind these buildings poses closing questions about the relation between commemorative landscapes and how communities wish to shape them.

Robert L. Moore Hall (RLM), 1973, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

While many UT buildings are now named after individuals, the University’s early buildings were named for their function or discipline such as the “women’s building” “Home economics” and “chemistry.” Alternatively, they were named for significant figures at the University such as presidents and high-profile faculty as we’ve seen in the case of Prather, Duren, Gearing, and controversially, Roberts, Simkins, Painter, and Moore.

The Robert Lee Moore Hall, like Simkins, has sparked controversy due to Moore’s racist and segregationist values. Home to the astronomy, mathematics, and physics departments, the building was constructed in 1972 and named after Moore in 1973, apparently to persuade him to retired. [1] Due to Moore’s well-known prejudiced views, students have led efforts to rename the building over the years.

Beginning in 2017, the same year the remaining Confederate statuary were relocated from the South Mall, UT students mobilized to rename RLM Hall due to its namesake’s racism.^[2] This grassroots effort resulted in a town hall meeting in the Fall of 2018 to announce a renaming campaign and launch a petition. The petition was signed by over 500 persons and the organizers met with UT President’s chief of staff Carlos Martinez at the end of November. However, no name changes ensued.^[3]

According to a Daily Texan article written by the organizers, Martinez offered the following statement:

We recognize that the history conveyed by the names of some buildings and facilities do not always reflect our current values. However, after last year’s relocation of the Confederate statuary into our historic archives (where they are being preserved for scholarship), the university is not currently engaged in efforts to change or remove other historic names or monuments from the main campus, either building-by-building or collectively.^[4]

In March of 2018, UT Student Government unanimously passed legislation to rename the building as a means of relaying the student body voice to the Board of Regents–the body ultimately responsible for name changes–during the April meeting.^[5] It is unclear whether the matters were discussed at the meeting. In Spring of 2019, student efforts also included a “Malcolm Over Moore” campaign proposing to rename the building after the character Ian Malcolm, a fictional UT mathematician from the book and film “Jurassic Park.”^[6] While partly humorous, the campaign launcher, Vikram Sundaram explained, “The purpose of this movement’s not to destroy [Moore’s] legacy….It’s to just say that we don’t need to be honoring people who did abhorrent things just because they did a few things that were good for society.”^[7] Unofficially, many students and faculty alike have shifted to referring to the building as the PMA (the physics, mathematics and astronomy) building. Most recently, in September of 2019, the student organization “People for PMA” addressed future actions at a town hall meeting.^[8] They describe their activities as a response to the University’s unwillingness to make the name change and call on students, faculty, and staff to refer to the building as PMA in the interest of inclusivity and changing values.

Robert B. Rowling Hall, undated, UT Austin Capital Planning and Construction Website

As the campus has physically expanded and its building is increasingly funded by donors, naming practices also have changed. These new structures, often beautifully designed with a companion piece of art, now mostly carry the name of their sponsor or patron. This trend is evidenced in the recent construction of major facilities on campus. In spring of 2018, The McCombs School of Business acquired the Robert B. Rowling Hall at the corner of Guadalupe Street and MLK Boulevard. Business man Robert Rowling and his partner Terry Hennersdorf Rowling, both McCombs undergraduate alums, pledged $25 million of the estimated $186 million building project.[9] Mr. Rowling served on the UT System Board of Regents and chaired the Board of Directors of The University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO).

Engineering Education and Research Center, 2017, Alcalde Magazine Website

In fall of 2017, the new Engineering Education and Research Center (EERC) opened. The Cockrell School of Engineering, like McCombs, raised millions of dollars in gifts and pledges to fund the facility along with funds from the UT Board of Regents. The EERC estimated cost was $310 million and had no single large donor.[10] However, it is home to the James J. and Miriam B. Mulva Conference Center and Auditorium [11]; the Texas Instruments Laboratories [12]; the Anwar Family Learning Center [13]; the McKinney Engineering Library [14]; the Rex and Renda Tillerson Terraces [15]. These were all named after their sponsors (often alumni).[16]

Louise and James Robert Moffett Molecular Biology Building, 2005, Austin Chronicle Website

These new and state-of-the art facilities have been praised by many for how they facilitate UT’s educational mission. At the same time, some have sparked controversy due to the nature of their namesake’s ideology such as Simkins and in the case of donors, the nature of their earnings. One example is James R. (“Jim Bob”) Moffett after whom the Louise and James Robert Moffett Molecular Biology Building (MBB) was named.

Jim Bob Moffett graduated from UT in 1961 with BS in Geology, having also played for the Longhorn football team. With a background in the oil industry, he became the CEO of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., a mining corporation mired in controversy. The corporation has been charged with environmental and human rights abuses.

A Papuan protester with a poster of a map of Papua province during a demonstration outside the office of Freeport-McMoRan’s Indonesian subsidiary, Jakarta, March 1, 2006, AP photo by Dita Alangkara.

The EPA listed Freeport-McMoRan in 1992 as the nation’s worst emitter of toxic chemicals.[17] In the 1990s, Moffett and Freeport faced major criticism and a legal battle here in Austin because of their subsidiary’s (FM Property) 4,000-acre real estate project on Barton Creek.[18] Their plans to build on the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone—where groundwater for the area is naturally replenished—were contested by environmentalists and resulted in litigation with the city. Around the same time, Freeport, who also has had many international ventures, experienced turmoil over its alleged human rights abuses and environmental destruction connected to its copper and gold mine in West Papua, Indonesia. The range of offenses included the flattening of a mountaintop from mining, the dumping of toxic run-off from the mines into local rivers, and connections to the Indonesian military’s torture and murder of local peoples. Freeport condemned the violence and denied claims of having paid off the military who protected the mines. Freeport’s international insurance was cancelled over these concerns.[19]

Jim Bob and Louise Moffett with UT President William and Isabella Cunningham, 1990, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

In 1994, during the period of the local lawsuits, the UT board of regents, led by then Chancellor William Cunningham both a former UT president and a boarder member of Freeport, agreed to name a building on campus after Moffett and his wife following the couple’s $2 million donation and another $1 million from Freeport.[20]

In response to Jim Bob’s donation paired with Freeport’s ties to abuses, faculty and students denounced the company and the naming of the building after Moffett. According to some accounts, Moffett threatened to sue professors.[21] The building is currently named Moffett Molecular Biology Building. Moffett is one of the most controversial examples of buildings named after donors.

[1] Katie Balevic. “SG supports renaming building currently named after racist mathematician,” The Daily Texan, March 28, 2018, http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2018/03/27/sg-supports-renaming-rlm-building-named-after-racist-mathematician

[2] Lauren Girgis. “People for PMA hold grassroots discussion on renaming Robert Lee Moore Hall.” The Daily Texan. September 11, 2019. http://dailytexanonline.com/2019/09/11/people-for-pma-hold-grassroots-discussion-on-renaming-robert-lee-moore-hall

[3] Suzanne Jacobs and Elizabeth Gutíerrez Matta. “Robert Lee Moore Hall needs renaming.” The Daily Texan, February 11, 2018. https://www.dailytexanonline.com/2018/02/11/robert-lee-moore-hall-needs-renaming

[4] Ibid.

[5] Katie Balevic. “SG supports renaming building currently named after racist mathematician,” The Daily Texan, March 27, 2018, https://www.dailytexanonline.com/2018/03/27/sg-supports-renaming-rlm-building-named-after-racist-mathematician

[6] Hannah Ortega. “Senior campaigns for RLM name change of Jurassic Proportions.” The Daily Texan, April 3, 2019. https://www.dailytexanonline.com/2019/04/03/senior-campaigns-for-rlm-name-change-of-jurassic-proportions

[7] Ibid.

[8] Lauren Girgis. “People for PMA hold grassroots discussion on renaming Robert Lee Moore Hall.” The Daily Texan, September 11, 2019. http://dailytexanonline.com/2019/09/11/people-for-pma-hold-grassroots-discussion-on-renaming-robert-lee-moore-hall

[9] “Rowling Hall is Coming,” Texas McCombs MBA Insider, December 12, 2016, https://blogs.mccombs.utexas.edu/mba-insider/2016/12/12/rowling-hall-is-coming/; “New Rolling Hall is the Future of Business Education at UT,” UT News, The University of Texas at Austin, February 22, 2018, https://news.utexas.edu/2018/02/22/new-rowling-hall-is-the-future-of-business-education/

[10] Editorial Board, “Engineering Education Research Center,” The Daily Texan, September 14, 2014, http://www.dailytexanonline.com/organization/engineering-education-and-research-center

[11] “Mulva Family Donates $60 Million to Business and Engineering Schools,” UT News, The University of Texas at Austin, January 24, 2014, https://news.utexas.edu/2014/01/24/mulva-family-donates-to-business-and-engineering-schools/

[12] Chad Swiatecki, “Texas Instruments gives millions for UT research center for engineering,” Austin Business Journal, February 3, 2015, https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/blog/techflash/2015/02/texas-instruments-gives-millions-for-ut-research.html

[13] “Midland Community Rallies to Support the Vision of the EERC,” Cockrell School of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, May 14, 2013, http://www.engr.utexas.edu/news/archive/7618-midland-donors

[14] “Richard W. McKinney Engineering Library Endowment,” The University of Texas Libraries, accessed February 18, 2019, https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/development/endowments/engineering-mckinney.html

[15] “Tillerson Family Commits $5 million to Cockrell School, Bolsters Engineering Education and Research Center,” Cockrell School of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, April 15, 2014, http://www.engr.utexas.edu/news/archive/7777-tillerson-eerc-gift

[16] “New Era Begins with Opening of 430,000-Square-Foot Engineering Education Building at UT Austin,” UT News, The University of Texas at Austin, September 28, 2017, https://news.utexas.edu/2017/09/28/new-era-begins-with-opening-of-engineering-building/

[17] Robert Ladenson, “Case from the 1995 Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl,” Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology, 1995, accessed February 18, 2019, http://ethics.iit.edu/EEL/Moffett.pdf

[18] Robert Bryce, “Spinning Gold,” Mother Jones Magazine (September/October 1996). https://www.motherjones.com/politics/1996/09/spinning-gold/

[19] Ibid.

[20] Ladenson, 1995

[21] Bryce, 1996

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